AMONG  THE 
NIGHT  PEOPLE 


D.    PIERSON 


Ex  Libris 
C.  K.  OGDEN 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 

LOS  ANGELES 


Frontisfie 


COLLIE  CHASED  HIM  AWAY 


Page  138 


AMONG  THE  NIGHT  PEOPLE 


CLARA  DILLINGHAM  PIERSON 

Author  of  "  Among  the  Meadow  People."  "  Pond  People,"  etc 


Illustrated  by  F.  C.  GORDON 


NEW  YORK 

E.  P.  DUTTON  AND  COMPANY 

31    WEST   TWENTY-THIRD   STREET 


COPYRIGHT,  1902 

BY 
P.  BUTTON  &  CO. 


•ttbe  fmicherbocher  Dres0,  "Hew  ffiorh 


QL 


TO 

RACHEL  W.  PIERSON 

THIS    BOOK   IS   AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED 


CONTENTS 


THE  BLACK  SPANISH  CHICKENS     ...  I 

THE  WIGGLERS  BECOME  MOSQUITOES     .         .  15 

THE  NAUGHTY  RACCOON  CHILDREN      .         .  30 

THE  TIMID  LITTLE  GROUND  HOG  ...  43 

THE  YOUNG  RACCOONS  GO  TO  A  PARTY        .  55 

THE  SKUNKS  AND  THE  OVEN-BIRD'S  NEST     .  68 

THE  LAZY  CUT-WORMS  .....  82 

THE  NIGHT-MOTH'S  PARTY    ....  94 

THE  LONELY  OLD  BACHELOR  MUSKRAT          .  IIO 
THE  GREEDY  RED  FOX          .         .         .         .131 

THE  UNFORTUNATE  FIREFLIES       .         .         .  148 

THE  KITTENS  COME  TO  THE  FOREST     .         .  l6o 

THE    INQUISITIVE    WEASELS      .  .  .  .176 

THE    THRIFTY    DEER-MOUSE     ....  IQO 

THE    HUMMING-BIRD    AND    THE    HAWK-MOTH  .  208 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PACK 

THEY    WERE  FREE    TO   GO  WHERE  THEY  CHOSE  6 

KNOCKED    HIS    BROTHER    DOWN         ...  40 

HE   STARTED    OFF    FOR    A    NIGHT'S   RAMBLE      .  72 

THEY    LIVED    IN    THE    FOREST    AFTER    THAT     .  109 

THE    MARSH    SEEMED    SO    EMPTY    AND    LONELY  127 

COLLIE  CHASED  HIM  AWAY  .         Frontispiece     138 

TWINKLING  WITH  HUNDREDS  OF   TINY  LIGHTS       157 
IN    WINTER    THEY    TURNED    WHITE  .  .178 

THE    MICE   MAKE    WINTER    THEIR   PLAYTIME   .       195 
THE    HUMMING-BIRD    AND    THE    HAWK-MOTH.       2l8 


vii 


MY  DEAR  LITTLE  FRIENDS  : — You  can 
never  guess  how  much  I  have  enjoyed 
writing  these  stories  of  the  night-time, 
and  I  must  tell  you  how  I  first  came  to 
think  of  doing  so.  I  once  knew  a  girl — 
and  she  was  not  a  very  little  girl,  either, — 
who  was  afraid  of  the  dark.  And  I  have 
known  three  boys  who  were  as  brave  as 
could  be  by  daylight,  but  who  would  not 
run  on  an  errand  alone  after  the  lamps 
were  lighted.  They  never  seemed  to 
think  what  a  beautiful,  restful,  growing 
time  the  night  is  for  plants  and  animals, 
and  even  for  themselves.  I  thought  that 
if  they  knew  more  of  what  happens  be- 
tween sunset  and  sunrise  they  would  love 
the  night  as  well  as  I. 

It  may  be  that  you  will  never  see 
Bats  flying  freely,  or  find  the  Owls 


x  Introduction 

flapping  silently  among  the  trees  without 
touching  even  a  twig.  Perhaps  while 
these  things  are  happening  you  must  be 
snugly  tucked  in  bed.  But  that  is  no 
reason  why  you  should  not  be  told  what 
they  do  while  you  are  dreaming.  Before 
this,  you  know,  I  have  told  you  more  of 
what  is  done  by  daylight  in  meadow,  forest, 
farmyard,  and  pond.  It  would  be  a  very 
queer  world  if  we  could  not  know  about 
things  without  seeing  them  for  ourselves, 
and  you  may  like  to  think,  when  you  are 
going  to  sleep,  that  hundreds  and  thou- 
sands of  tiny  out-of-door  people  are  turn- 
ing, and  stretching,  and  going  to  find  their 
food.  In  the  morning,  when  you  are 
dressing  in  your  sunshiny  rooms,  they 
are  cuddling  down  for  a  good  day's  rest. 
I  think  I  ought  to  tell  you  that  I  have 
not  been  alone  when  writing  these  stories. 
I  have  often  been  in  the  meadow  and  the 
forest  at  night,  and  have  seen  and  heard 
many  interesting  things,  but  my  good 


Introduction  xi 

Cat,  Silvertip,  has  known  far  more  than 
I  of  the  night-doings  of  the  out-of-door 
people.  He  has  been  beside  me  at  my 
desk,  and  although  at  times  he  has  shut 
his  eyes  and  taken  Cat-naps  while  I 
wrote,  there  have  been  many  other  times 
when  he  has  taken  the  pen  right  out  of 
my  hand.  He  has  even  tried  running  the 
typewriter  with  his  dainty  white  paws, 
and  he  has  gone  over  every  story  I  have 
written.  I  do  not  say  that  he  has  written 
any  himself,  but  you  can  see  that  he  has 
been  very  careful  what  I  wrote,  and  I 
have  learned  a  great  deal  from  him  that 
I  never  knew  before.  He  is  a  very  good 
and  clever  Cat,  and  if  you  like  these  sto- 
ries I  am  sure  it  must  be  partly  because 
he  had  a  paw  in  the  writing  of  them. 
Your  friend, 

CLARA  D.  PIERSON. 

STANTON,  MICHIGAN, 
April,  i5th,  1901. 


THE     BLACK    SPANISH 
CHICKENS 

\  XTHEN  the  Speckled  Hen  wanted  to 
*  sit  there  was  no  use  in  trying  to 

talk  her  out  of  the  idea,  for  she  was  a 
very  set  Hen.  So,  after  the  farmer's  wife 
had  worked  and  worked,  and  barred  her 
out  of  first  one  nesting-place  and  then 
another,  she  gave  up  to  the  Speckled 
Hen  and  fixed  her  a  fine  nest  and  put 
thirteen  eggs  into  it.  They  were  Black 
Spanish  eggs,  but  the  Speckled  Hen  did 
not  know  that.  The  Hens  that  had  laid 
them  could  not  bear  to  sit,  so,  unless  some 
other  Hen  did  the  work  which  they  left 
undone,  there  would  have  been  no  Black 
Spanish  Chickens.  This  is  always  their 
way,  and  people  have  grown  used  to  it. 


2        Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Now  nobody  thinks  of  asking  a  Black 
Spanish  Hen  to  sitk  although  it  does  not 
seem  right  that  a  Hen  should  be  unwill- 
ing to  bring  up  chickens.  Supposing  no- 
body had  been  willing  to  bring  her  up  ? 

Still,  the  Black  Spanish  Hens  talk  very 
reasonably  about  it.  "  We  will  lay  plenty 
of  eggs,"  they  say,  "  but  some  of  the  com- 
mon Hens  must  hatch  them."  They  do 
their  share  of  the  farmyard  work,  only 
they  insist  on  choosing  what  that  share 
shall  be. 

When  the  Speckled  Hen  came  off  the 
nest  with  eleven  Black  Chickens  (two  of 
the  eggs  did  not  hatch),  she  was  not  alto- 
gether happy.  "  I  wanted  them  to  be 
speckled,"  said  she,  "and  not  one  of  the 
whole  brood  is."  That  was  why  she  grew 
so  restless  and  discontented  in  her  coop, 
although  it  was  roomy  and  clean  and  she 
had  plenty  given  her  to  eat  and  drink. 
She  was  quite  happy  only  when  they 
were  safely  under  her  wings  at  night. 


The  Black  Spanish  Chickens          3 

And  such  a  time  as  they  always  had 
getting  settled  ! 

When  the  sunbeams  came  more  and 
more  slantingly  through  the  trees,  the 
Chickens  felt  less  and  less  like  running 
around.  Their  tiny  legs  were  tired  and 
they  liked  to  cuddle  down  on  the  grass 
in  the  shadow  of  the  coop.  Then  the 
Speckled  Hen  often  clucked  to  them  to 
come  in  and  rest,  but  they  liked  it  bet- 
ter in  the  open  air.  The  Speckled  Hen 
would  also  have  liked  to  be  out  of  the 
coop,  yet  the  farmer  kept  her  in.  He 
knew  what  was  best  for  Hens  with  little 
Chickens,  and  also  what  was  best  for  the 
tender  young  lettuce  and  radishes  in  his 
garden. 

When  the  sun  was  nearly  down,  the 
Speckled  Hen  clucked  her  come-to-bed 
cluck,  which  was  quite  different  from  her 
food  cluck  or  her  Hawk  cluck,  and  the 
little  Black  Chickens  ran  between  the  bars 
and  crawled  under  her  feathers.  Then  the 


4        Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Speckled  Hen  began  to  look  fatter  and 
fatter  and  fatter  for  each  Chicken  who 
nestled  beneath  her.  Sometimes  one  little 
fellow  would  scramble  up  on  to  her  back 
and  stand  there,  while  she  turned  her  head 
from  side  to  side,  looking  at  him  with  first 
one  and  then  the  other  of  her  round  yel- 
low eyes,  and  scolding  him  all  the  time.  It 
never  did  any  good  to  scold,  but  she  said 
she  had  to  do  something,  and  with  ten 
other  children  under  her  wings  it  would 
never  do  for  her  to  stand  up  and  tumble 
him  off. 

All  the  time  that  they  were  getting 
settled  for  the  night  the  Chickens  were 
talking  in  sleepy  little  cheeps,  and  now 
and  then  one  of  them  would  poke  his 
head  out  between  the  feathers  and  tell 
the  Speckled  Hen  that  somebody  was 
pushing  him.  Then  she  would  be  more 
puzzled  than  ever  and  cluck  louder  still. 
Sometimes,  too,  the  Chickens  would  run 
out  for  another  mouthful  of  cornmeal 


The  Black  Spanish  Chickens          5 

mush  or  a  few  more  drops  of  water. 
There  was  one  little  fellow  who  always 
wanted  something  to  drink  just  when  he 
should  have  been  going  to  sleep.  The 
Speckled  Hen  used  to  say  that  it  took 
longer  for  a  mouthful  of  water  to  run 
down  his  throat  than  it  would  for  her  to 
drink  the  whole  panful.  Of  course  it  did 
take  quite  a  while,  because  he  could  n't 
hurry  it  by  swallowing.  He  had  to  drink, 
as  all  birds  do,  by  filling  his  beak  with 
water  and  then  holding  it  up  until  the  last 
drop  had  trickled  down  into  his  stomach. 
When  the  whole  eleven  were  at  last 
safely  tucked  away  for  the  night,  the 
Speckled  Hen  was  tired  but  happy. 
"They  are  good  children,"  she  often  said 
to  herself,  "  if  they  are  Black  Spanish. 
They  might  be  just  as  mischievous  if  they 
were  speckled  ;  still,  I  do  wish  that  those 
stylish-looking,  white-eared  Black  Span- 
ish Hens  would  raise  their  own  broods. 
I  don  't  like  to  be  hatch-mother  to  other 


6        Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Hens'  chickens."  Then  she  would  slide 
her  eyelids  over  her  eyes,  and  doze  off, 
and  dream  that  they  were  all  speckled 
like  herself. 

There  came  a  day  when  the  coop  was 
raised  and  they  were  free  to  go  where 
they  chose.  There  was  a  fence  around 
the  vegetable  garden  now  and  netting 
around  the  flower-beds,  but  there  were 
other  lovely  places  for  scratching  up  food, 
for  nipping  off  tender  young  green  things, 
for  picking  up  the  fine  gravel  which  every 
Chicken  needs,  and  for  wallowing  in  the 
dust.  Then  the  Black  Spanish  Chickens 
became  acquainted  with  the  other  fowls 
whom  they  had  never  met  before.  They 
were  rather  afraid  of  the  Shanghai  Cock 
because  he  had  such  a  gruff  way  of  speak- 
ing, and  they  liked  the  Dorkings,  yet 
the  ones  they  watched  and  admired  and 
talked  most  about  were  the  Black  Span- 
ish Cock  and  Hen.  There  were  many 
fowls  on  the  farm  who  did  not  have  fam- 


THEY  WERE  FREE  TO  GO  WHERE  THEY  CHOSE.  Page  6 


The  Black  Spanish  Chickens          7 

ily  names,  and  the  Speckled  Hen  was  one 
of  these.  They  had  been  there  longer 
than  the  rest  and  did  not  really  like  hav- 
ing new  people  come  to  live  in  the  poul- 
try-yard. It  was  trying,  too,  when  the 
older  Hens  had  to  hatch  the  eggs  laid 
by  the  newcomers. 

It  is  said  that  this  was  what  made  the 
Speckled  Hen  leave  the  eleven  little 
Black  Spanish  Chickens  after  she  had 
been  out  of  the  coop  for  a  while.  They 
had  been  very  mischievous  and  disobedi- 
ent one  day,  and  she  walked  off  and 
left  them  to  care  for  themselves  while 
she  started  to  raise  a  family  of  her  own 
in  a  stolen. nest  under  the  straw-stack. 

When  night  came,  eleven  little  Black 
Spanish  Chickens  did  not  know  what 
to  do.  They  went  to  look  for  their  old 
coop,  but  that  had  been  given  to  an- 
other Hen  and  her  family.  They  walked 
around  looking  very  small  and  lonely,  and 
wished  they  had  minded  the  Speckled 


8        Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Hen  and  made  her  love  them  more. 
At  last  they  found  an  old  potato-crate 
which  reminded  them  of  a  coop  and  so 
seemed  rather  homelike.  It  stood,  top 
down,  upon  the  ground  and  they  were 
too  big  to  crawl  through  its  barred  sides, 
so  they  did  the  best  they  could  and  hud- 
dled together  on  top  of  it.  If  there  had 
not  been  a  stone-heap  near,  they  could 
not  have  done  that,  for  their  wing-feathers 
were  not  yet  large  enough  to  help  them 
flutter.  The  bravest  Chicken  went  first, 
picking  his  way  from  stone  to  stone  until 
he  reached  the  highest  one,  balancing 
himself  awhile  on  that,  stretching  his  neck 
toward  the  potato-crate,  looking  at  it  as 
though  he  were  about  to  jump,  and  then 
seeming  to  change  his  mind  and  decide 
not  do  so  after  all. 

The  Chickens  on  the  ground  said  he 
was  afraid,  and  he  said  he  was  n't  any 
more  afraid  than  they  were.  Then,  after 
a  while,  he  did  jump,  a  queer,  floppy, 


The  Black  Spanish  Chickens  9 

squawky  kind  of  jump,  but  it  landed  him 
where  he  wanted  to  be.  After  that  it 
was  his  turn  to  laugh  at  the  others  while 
they  stood  teetering  uncertainly  on  the 
top  stone.  They  were  very  lonely  with- 
out the  Speckled  Hen,  and  each  Chicken 
wanted  to  be  in  the  middle  of  the  group 
so  that  he  could  have  others  to  keep  him 
warm  on  all  sides. 

Somebody  laughed  at  the  most  mis- 
chievous Chicken  and  told  him  he  could 
stand  on  the  potato-crate's  back  without 
being  scolded,  and  he  pouted  his  bill  and 
said  :  "  Much  fun  that  would  be  !  All  I 
cared  about  standing  on  the  Speckled 
Hen's  back  was  to  make  her  scold."  It 
is  very  shocking  that  he  should  say 
such  things,  but  he  did  say  exactly 
that. 

They  slept  safely  that  night,  and  only 
awakened  when  the  Cocks  crowed  a  little 
while  after  midnight.  After  that  they  slept 
until  sunrise,  and  when  the  Shanghais 


io      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

and  Dorkings  came  down  from  the  apple- 
tree  where  they  had  been  roosting,  the 
Black  Spanish  Chickens  stirred  and 
cheeped,  and  looked  at  their  feathers  to 
see  how  much  they  had  grown  during  the 
night.  Then  they  pushed  and  squabbled 
for  their  breakfast. 

Every  night  they  came  back  to  sleep 
on  the  potato-crate.  At  last  they  were 
able  to  spring  up  into  their  places  with- 
out standing  on  the  stone-pile,  and  that 
was  a  great  day.  They  talked  about  it 
long  after  they  should  have  been  asleep, 
and  were  still  chattering  when  the  Shang- 
hai Cock  spoke  :  "  If  you  Black  Spanish 
Chickens  don't  keep  still  and  let  us 
sleep,"  said  he,  "  some  Owl  or  Weasel 
will  come  for  you,  and  I  shall  be  glad  to 
have  him  !  " 

That  scared  the  Chickens  and  they 
were  very  quiet.  It  made  the  Black 
Spanish  Hen  uneasy  though,  and  she 
whispered  to  the  Black  Spanish  Cock 


The  Black  Spanish  Chickens         1 1 

and  would  n't  let  him  sleep  until  he  had 
promised  to  fight  anybody  who  might  try 
to  carry  one  of  the  Chickens  away  from 
the  potato-crate. 

The  next  night  first  one  Chicken  and 
then  another  kept  tumbling  off  the  po- 
tato-crate. They  lost  their  patience  and 
said  such  things  as  these  to  each  other  : 

"  You  pushed  me  !  You  know  you 
did  !  " 

"  Well,  he  pushed  me  !  " 

"  Did  n't  either  !  " 

"  Did  too  !  " 

"  Well,  I  could  n't  help  it  if  I  did  ! " 

The  Shanghai  Cock  became  exceed- 
ingly cross  because  they  made  so  much 
noise,  and  even  the  Black  Spanish  Cock 
lost  his  patience.  "  You  may  be  my 
children,"  said  he,  "  but  you  do  not  take 
your  manners  from  me.  Is  there  no 
other  place  on  this  farm  where  you  can 
sleep  excepting  that  old  crate  ?  " 

"  We   want    to    sleep   here,"   answered 


12      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

the  Chicken  on  the  ground.  "  There  is 
plenty  of  room  if  those  fellows  would  n't 
push."  Then  he  flew  up  and  clung  and 
pushed  until  some  other  Chicken  tum- 
bled off. 

"  Well  !  "  said  the  Black  Spanish  Cock. 
And  he  would  have  said  much  more  if 
the  Black  Spanish  Hen  had  not  fluttered 
down  from  the  apple-tree  to  see  what 
was  the  matter.  When  he  saw  the  ex- 
pression of  her  eyes  he  decided  to  go 
back  to  his  perch. 

"  There  is  not  room  for  you  all,"  said 
the  Black  Spanish  Hen.  "  One  must 
sleep  somewhere  else." 

"  There  is  room,"  said  the  Chickens, 
contradicting  her.  "  We  have  always 
roosted  on  here." 

"  There  is  not  room,"  said  the  Black 
Spanish  Hen  once  more.  "  How  do 
your  feathers  grow  ?  " 

"  Finely,"  said  they. 

"  And  your  feet  ?  " 


The  Black  Spanish  Chickens         13 

"  They  are  getting  very  big,"  was  the 
answer. 

"  Do  you  think  the  Speckled  Hen 
could  cover  you  all  with  her  wings  if  she 
were  to  try  it  now  ?  " 

The  Chickens  looked  at  each  other 
and  laughed.  They  thought  it  would 
take  three  Speckled  Hens  to  cover  them. 

"  But  she  used  to,"  said  the  Black 
Spanish  Hen.  She  did  not  say  anything 
more.  She  just  looked  at  the  potato- 
crate  and  at  them  and  at  the  potato-crate 
again.  Then  she  walked  off. 

After  a  while  one  of  the  Chickens  said  : 
"  I  guess  perhaps  there  is  n't  room  for  us 
all  there." 

The  mischievous  one  said :  "  If  you 
little  Chickens  want  to  roost  there  you 
may.  I  am  too  large  for  that  sort  of 
thing."  Then  he  walked  up  the  slanting 
board  to  the  apple-tree  branch  and 
perched  there  beside  the  young  Shanghais. 
You  should  have  seen  how  beautifully 


14      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

he  did  it.  His  toes  hooked  themselves 
around  the  branch  as  though  he  had 
always  perched  there,  and  he  tucked  his 
head  under  his  wing  with  quite  an  air. 
Before  long  his  brothers  and  sisters  came 
also,  and  heard  him  saying  to  one  of  his 
new  neighbors,  "  Oh,  yes,  I  much  prefer 
apple-trees,  but  when  I  was  a  Chicken  I 
used  to  sleep  on  a  potato-crate." 

"Just  listen  to  him!"  whispered  the 
Black  Spanish  Cock.  "  And  he  has  n't  a 
tail-feather  worth  mentioning  !  " 

"  Never  mind,"  answered  the  Black 
Spanish  Hen.  "  Let  them  play  that  they 
are  grown  up  if  they  want  to.  They  will 
be  soon  enough."  She  sighed  as  she 
put  her  head  under  her  wing  and  settled 
down  for  the  night.  It  made  her  feel  old 
to  see  her  children  roosting  in  a  tree. 


THE  WIGGLERS   BECOME    MOS- 
QUITOES 

IT  was  a  bright  moonlight  night  when  the 
*  oldest  Wigglers  in  the  rain-barrel  made 
up  their  mind  to  leave  the  water.  They 
had  always  been  restless  and  discontented 
children,  but  it  was  not  altogether  their 
fault.  How  could  one  expect  any  insect 
with  such  a  name  to  float  quietly  ?  When 
the  Mosquito  Mothers  laid  their  long  and 
slender  eggs  in  the  rain-barrel,  they  had 
fastened  them  together  in  boat-shaped 
masses,  and  there  they  had  floated  until 
the  Wigglers  were  strong  enough  to 
break  through  the  lower  ends  of  the  eggs 
into  the  water.  It  had  been  only  a  few 
days  before  they  were  ready  to  do  this. 
Then  there  had  been  a  few  more  days 
15 


1 6      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

and  nights  when  the  tiny  Wigglers  hung 
head  downward  in  the  water,  and  all  one 
could  see  by  looking  across  the  barrel 
was  the  tips  of  their  breathing  tubes. 
Sometimes,  if  they  were  frightened,  a 
young  Wiggler  would  forget  and  get  head 
uppermost  for  a  minute,  but  he  was  al- 
ways ashamed  to  have  this  happen,  and 
made  all  sorts  of  excuses  for  himself  when 
it  did.  Well-bred  little  Wigglers  tried  to 
always  have  their  heads  down,  and  Mos- 
quitoes who  stopped  to  visit  with  them 
and  give  good  advice  told  them  such 
things  as  these :  "  The  Wiggler  who 
keeps  his  head  up  may  never  have  wings," 
and,  "  Up  with  your  tails  and  down  with 
your  eyes,  if  you  would  be  mannerly, 
healthy,  and  wise." 

When  they  were  very  young  they  kept 
their  heads  way  down  and  breathed 
through  a  tube  that  ran  out  near  the  tail- 
end  of  their  bodies.  This  tube  had  a 
cluster  of  tiny  wing-like  things  on  the  very 


The  Wigglers  Become  Mosquitoes     17 

tip,  which  kept  it  floating  on  the  top  of 
the  water.  They  had  no  work  to  do,  so 
they  just  ate  food  which  they  found  in 
the  water,  and  wiggled,  and  played  tag, 
and  whenever  they  were  at  all  frightened 
they  dived  to  the  bottom  and  stayed 
there  until  they  were  out  of  breath.  That 
was  never  very  long. 

There  were  many  things  to  frighten 
them.  Sometimes  a  stray  Horse  stopped 
by  the  barrel  to  drink,  sometimes  a  Robin 
perched  on  the  edge  for  a  few  mouthfuls 
of  water,  and  once  in  a  while  a  Dragon- 
Fly  came  over  to  visit  from  the  neighbor- 
ing pond.  It  was  not  always  the  biggest 
visitor  who  scared  them  the  worst.  The 
Horses  tried  not  to  touch  the  Wigglers, 
while  a  Robin  was  only  too  glad  if  he 
happened  to  get  one  into  his  bill  with 
the  water.  The  Dragon-Flies  were  the 
worst,  for  they  were  the  hungriest,  and 
they  were  so  much  smaller  that  sometimes 
the  Wigglers  did  n't  see  them  coming. 


1 8      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Sometimes,  too,  when  they  thought  that 
a  Dragon-Fly  was  going  the  other  way, 
some  of  them  stayed  near  the  top  of  the 
water,  only  to  find  when  it  was  too  late 
that  a  Dragon-Fly  can  go  backward  or 
sidewise  without  turning  around. 

When  they  were  a  few  days  old  the 
Wigglers  began  to  change  their  skins. 
This  they  did  by  wiggling  out  of  their 
old  ones  and  wearing  the  new  ones  which 
had  been  growing  underneath.  This 
made  them  feel  exceedingly  important, 
and  some  of  them  became  disgracefully 
vain.  One  Wiggler  would  not  dive  until 
he  was  sure  a  certain  Robin  had  seen  his 
new  suit.  It  was  because  of  that  vanity 
he  never  lived  to  be  a  Mosquito. 

After  they  had  changed  their  skins  a 
few  times,  they  had  two  breathing-tubes 
apiece  instead  of  one,  and  these  two  grew 
out  near  their  heads.  And  their  heads 
were  much  larger.  At  the  tail-end  of 
his  body  each  Wiggler  now  had  two  leaf- 


The  Wigglers  Become  Mosquitoes     19 

like  things  with  which  he  swam  through 
the  water.  Because  they  used  different 
breathing-tubes,  those  Wigglers  who  had 
moulted  or  cast  their  skins  several  times 
now  floated  in  the  water  with  their  heads 
just  below  the  surface  and  their  tails 
down.  When  a  Wiggler  is  old  enough 
for  this,  he  is  called  a  Pupa,  or  half- 
grown  one. 

There  are  often  young  Mosquito  chil- 
dren of  all  ages  in  the  same  barrel — eggs, 
Wigglers,  and  Pupae  all  together.  There 
is  plenty  of  room  and  plenty  of  food,  but 
because  they  have  no  work  to  do  there  is 
much  time  for  quarrelling  and  talking 
about  each  other. 

This  year  the  Oldest  Brother  had  put 
on  so  many  airs  that  nobody  liked  it  at 
all,  and  several  of  the  Wigglers  had  been 
heard  to  say  that  they  could  n't  bear  the 
sight  of  him.  He  had  such  a  way  of  say- 
ing, "  When  I  was  a  young  Wiggler  and 
had  to  keep  my  head  down,"  or  repeat- 


2O      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

ing,  "  Up  with  your  tails  and  down  with 
your  eyes,  if  you  would  be  mannerly, 
healthy,  and  wise."  One  little  Wiggler 
crossed  his  feelers  at  him,  and  they  say 
that  it  is  just  as  bad  to  do  that  as  to  make 
faces.  Besides,  it  is  so  much  easier  —  if 
you  have  the  feelers  to  cross. 

Now  the  Oldest  Brother  and  those  of 
his  brothers  and  sisters  who  had  hatched 
from  the  same  egg-mass  were  talking  of 
leaving  the  rain-barrel  forever.  It  was  a 
bright  moonlight  night  and  they  longed  to 
get  their  wings  uncovered  and  dried,  for 
then  they  would  be  full-grown  Mosquitoes, 
resting  most  of  the  day  and  having  glorious 
times  at  night. 

The  Oldest  Brother  was  jerking  him- 
self through  the  water  as  fast  as  he  could, 
giving  his  jointed  body  sudden  bends, 
first  this  way  and  then  that,  and  when  he 
met  any  one  nearly  his  own  age  he  said, 
"Come  with  me  and  cast  your  skin.  It 
is  a  fine  evening  for  moulting." 


The  Wigglers  Become  Mosquitoes     21 

Sometimes  they  answered,  "  All  right," 
and  jerked  or  wiggled  or  swam  along 
with  him,  and  sometimes  a  Pupa  would 
answer,  "  I  'm  afraid  I  'm  not  old  enough 
to  slip  out  of  my  skin  easily." 

Then  the  Oldest  Brother  would  reply, 
"  Don't  stop  for  that.  You  '11  be  older  by 
the  time  we  begin."  That  was  true,  of 
course,  and  all  members  of  Mosquito 
families  grow  old  very  fast.  So  it  hap- 
pened that  when  the  moon  peeped  over 
the  farmhouse,  showing  her  bright  face 
between  the  two  chimneys,  twenty-three 
Pupse  were  floating  close  to  each  other 
and  making  ready  to  change  their  skins 
for  the  last  time. 

It  was  very  exciting.  All  the  young 
Wigglers  hung  around  to  see  what  was 
going  on,  and  pushed  each  other  aside  to 
get  the  best  places.  The  Oldest  Brother 
was  much  afraid  that  somebody  else 
would  begin  to  moult  before  he  was  ready, 
and  all  the  brothers  were  telling  their 


22      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

sisters  to  be  careful  to  split  their  skins  in 
the  right  place  down  the  back,  and  the  sis- 
ters were  telling  them  that  they  knew  just 
as  much  about  moulting  as  their  brothers 
did.  Every  little  while  the  Oldest  Brother 
would  say,  "  Now  wait !  Don't  one  of  you 
fellows  split  his  old  skin  until  I  say  so." 

Then  two  or  three  of  his  brothers 
would  become  impatient,  because  their 
outer  skins  were  growing  tighter  every 
minute,  and  would  say,  "  Why  not  ?  "  and 
would  grumble  because  they  had  to  wait. 
The  truth  was  that  the  Oldest  Brother 
could  not  get  his  skin  to  crack,  although 
he  jerked  and  wiggled  and  took  very 
deep  breaths.  And  he  did  n't  want  any 
one  else  to  get  ahead  of  him.  At  last  it 
did  begin  to  open,  and  he  had  just  told 
the  others  to  commence  moulting,  when  a 
Mosquito  Mother  stopped  to  lay  a  few 
eggs  in  the  barrel. 

"  Dear  me  !  "  said  she.  "  You  are  not 
going  to  moult  to-night,  are  you  ?  " 


The  Wigglers  Become  Mosquitoes     23 

"  Yes,  we  are,"  answered  the  Oldest 
Brother,  giving  a  wiggle  that  split  his 
skin  a  little  farther.  "  We  '11  be  biting 
people  before  morning." 

"You?"  said  the  Mosquito  Mother, 
with  a  queer  little  smile.  "  I  would  n't 
count  on  doing  that.  But  you  young 
people  may  get  into  trouble  if  you  moult 
now,  for  it  looks  like  rain." 

She  waved  her  feelers  upward  as  she 
spoke,  and  they  noticed  that  heavy  black 
clouds  were  piling  up  in  the  sky.  Even 
as  they  looked  the  moon  was  hidden  and 
the  wind  began  to  stir  the  branches  of  the 
trees.  "  It  will  rain,"  she  said,  "  and  then 
the  water  will  run  off  the  roof  into  this 
barrel,  and  if  you  have  just  moulted  and 
cannot  fly,  you  will  be  drowned." 

"  Pooh  ! "  answered  the  Oldest  Brother. 
"Guess  we  can  take  care  of  ourselves. 
I  'm  not  afraid  of  a  little  water."  Then 
he  tried  to  crawl  out  of  his  old  skin. 

The  Mosquito  Mother  stayed  until  she 


24      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

had  laid  all  the  eggs  she  wanted  to,  and 
then  flew  away.  Not  one  of  the  Pupse 
had  been  willing  to  listen  to  her,  although 
some  of  the  sisters  might  have  done  so  if 
their  brothers  had  not  made  fun  of 
them. 

At  last,  twenty-three  soft  and  tired 
young  Mosquitoes  stood  on  their  cast-off 
pupa-skins,  waiting  for  their  wings  to 
harden.  It  is  never  easy  work  to  crawl 
out  of  one's  skin,  and  the  last  moulting  is 
the  hardest  of  all.  It  was  then,  when 
they  could  do  nothing  but  wait,  that  these 
young  Mosquitoes  began  to  feel  afraid. 
The  night  was  now  dark  and  windy,  and 
sometimes  a  sudden  gust  blew  their  float- 
ing pupa-skins  toward  one  side  of  the 
barrel.  They  had  to  cling  tightly  to 
them,  for  they  suddenly  remembered  that 
if  they  fell  into  the  water  they  might 
drown.  The  oldest  one  found  himself 
wishing  to  be  a  Wiggler  again.  "Wig- 
glers  are  never  drowned,"  thought  he. 


The  Wigglers  Become  Mosquitoes     25 

"Who  are  you  going  to  bite  first?" 
asked  one  of  his  brothers. 

He  answered  very  crossly  :  "  I  don't 
know  and  I  don't  care.  I  'm  not  hungry. 
Can't  you  think  of  anything  but  eating  ?  " 

"  Why,  what  else  is  there  to  think 
about  ?  "  cried  all  the  floating  Mosquitoes. 

"  Well,  there  is  flying,"  said  he. 

"  Humph  !  I  don't  see  what  use  flying 
would  be  except  to  carry  us  to  our  food," 
said  one  Mosquito  Sister.  She  afterward 
found  out  that  it  was  good  for  other 
reasons. 

After  that  they  did  n't  try  to  talk  with 
their  Oldest  Brother.  They  talked  with 
each  other  and  tried  their  legs,  and 
wished  it  were  light  enough  for  them  to 
see  their  wings.  Mosquitoes  have  such  in- 
teresting wings,  you  know,  thin  and  gauzy, 
and  with  delicate  fringes  around  the  edges 
and  along  the  line  of  each  vein.  The 
sisters,  too,  were  proud  of  the  pockets 
under  their  wings,  and  were  in  a  hurry  to 


26      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

have  their  wings  harden,  so  that  they 
could  flutter  them  and  hear  the  beautiful 
singing  sound  made  by  the  air  striking 
these  pockets.  They  knew  that  their 
brothers  could  never  sing,  and  they  were 
glad  to  think  that  they  were  ahead  of 
them  for  once.  It  was  not  really  their 
fault  that  they  felt  so,  for  the  brothers 
had  often  put  on  airs  and  laughed  at 
them. 

Then  came  a  wonderful  flash  of  light- 
ning and  a  long  roll  of  thunder,  and  the 
trees  tossed  their  beautiful  branches  to 
and  fro,  while  big  rain-drops  pattered 
down  on  to  the  roof  overhead  and  spat- 
tered and  bounded  and  rolled  toward 
the  edge  under  which  the  rain-barrel 
stood. 

"  Fly  !  "  cried  the  Oldest  Brother,  rais- 
ing his  wings  as  well  as  he  could. 

"  We  can't.  Where  to  ? "  cried  the 
rest. 

"  Fly  any  way,  anywhere  !  "    screamed 


The  Wigglers  Become  Mosquitoes     27 

the  Oldest  Brother,  and  in  some  wonder- 
ful way  the  whole  twenty-three  managed 
to  flutter  and  crawl  and  sprawl  up  the 
side  of  the  building,  where  the  rain-drops 
fell  past  but  did  not  touch  them.  There 
they  found  older  Mosquitoes  waiting  for 
the  shower  to  stop.  Even  the  Oldest 
Brother  was  so  scared  that  he  shook,  and 
when  he  saw  that  same  Mosquito  Mother 
who  had  told  him  to  put  off  changing 
his  skin,  he  got  behind  two  other  young 
Mosquitoes  and  kept  very  still.  Perhaps 
she  saw  him,  for  it  was  lighter  then  than 
it  had  been.  She  did  not  seem  to  see 
him,  but  he  heard  her  talking  to  her 
friends.  "  I  told  him,"  she  said,  "  that  he 
might  better  put  off  moulting,  but  he  an- 
swered that  he  could  take  care  of  himself, 
and  that  he  would  be  out  biting  people 
before  morning." 

"  Did  he  say  that  ?  "  cried  the  other  old 
Mosquitoes. 

"  He  did,"  she  replied. 


28      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Then  they  all  laughed  and  laughed  and 
laughed  again,  and  the  young  Mosquito 
found  out  why.  It  was  because  Mos- 
quito brothers  have  to  eat  honey,  and 
only  the  sisters  may  bite  people  and  suck 
their  blood.  He  had  thought  so  often 
how  he  would  sing  around  somebody  until 
he  found  the  nicest,  juiciest  spot,  and  then 
settle  lightly  down  and  bite  and  suck  until 
his  slender  little  body  was  fat  and  round 
and  red  with  its  stomachful  of  blood. 
And  that  could  never  be  !  He  could  never 
sing,  and  he  would  have  to  sit  around 
with  his  stomach  full  of  honey  and  see  his 
eleven  sisters  gorged  with  blood  and  hear 
them  singing  sweetly  as  they  flew.  If 
Mosquito  Fathers  had  ever  come  to  the 
barrel  he  might  have  found  this  out,  but 
they  never  did.  He  sneaked  off  by  him- 
self until  he  met  an  early  bird  and  then — 
well,  you  know  birds  must  eat  something, 
and  the  Mosquito  was  right  there.  Of 
course,  after  that,  his  brothers  and  sisters 


The  Wigglers  Become  Mosquitoes     29 

had  a  chance  to  do  as  they  wanted  to,  and 
the  eleven  sisters  bit  thirteen  people  the 
very  next  night  and  had  the  loveliest  kind 
of  Mosquito  time. 


THE  NAUGHTY  RACCOON  CHIL- 
DREN 


was  hardly  a  night  of  his  life 
when  the  Little  Brother  of  the  Rac- 
coon family  was  not  reproved  by  his 
mother  for  teasing.  Mrs.  Raccoon  said  she 
did  n't  know  what  she  had  done  to  deserve 
such  a  child.  When  she  spoke  like  this 
to  her  neighbors  they  sighed  and  said,  "  It 
must  be  trying,  but  he  may  outgrow  it." 

The  Oldest  Wolverene,  though,  told 
the  Skunk  that  his  cousin,  Mrs.  Raccoon's 
husband,  had  been  just  as  bad  as  that 
when  he  was  young.  "  I  do  not  want  you 
to  say  that  I  said  so,"  he  whispered,  "  be- 
cause he  might  hear  of  it  and  be  angry, 
but  it  is  true."  The  Oldest  Wolverene 
did  n't  say  whether  Mr.  Raccoon  outgrew 
30 


The  Raccoon  Children  31 

this  bad  habit,  yet  it  would  seem  that  his 
wife  had  never  noticed  it. 

You  must  not  think  that  Mr.  Raccoon 
was  dead.  Oh,  no,  indeed  !  Every  night 
he  was  prowling  through  the  forest  on 
tiptoe  looking  for  food.  But  Mrs.  Rac- 
coon was  a  very  devoted  mother  and  gave 
so  much  time  and  attention  to  her  chil- 
dren that  she  was  not  good  company  for 
her  husband.  He  did  not  care  much  for 
home  life,  and  the  children  annoyed  him 
exceedingly,  so  he  went  away  and  found 
a  hole  in  another  tree  which  he  fitted  up 
for  himself.  There  he  slept  through  the 
day  and  until  the  setting  of  the  sun  told 
him  that  it  .was  time  for  his  breakfast. 
Raccoons  like  company,  and  he  often  had 
friends  in  to  sleep  with  him.  Sometimes 
these  friends  were  Raccoons  like  himself 
with  wives  and  children,  and  then  they 
would  talk  about  their  families  and  tell 
how  they  thought  their  wives  were  spoil- 
ing the  children. 


32      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

The  four  little  Raccoons,  who  lived  with 
their  mother  in  the  dead  branch  of  the 
big  oak-tree,  had  been  born  in  April, 
when  the  forest  was  sweet  with  the  scent 
of  wild  violets  and  every  one  was  happy. 
Beautiful  pink  and  white  trilliums  raised 
their  three-cornered  flowers  above  their 
threefold  leaves  and  nodded  with  every 
passing  breeze.  Yellow  adder's-tongue 
was  there,  with  cranesbill  geraniums, 
squirrel-corn,  and  spring  beauties,  besides 
hepaticas  and  windflowers  and  the  dainty 
bishop's-cap.  The  young  Raccoons  did 
not  see  these  things,  for  their  eyes  would 
not  work  well  by  daylight,  and  when, 
after  dark,  their  mother  let  them  put 
their  heads  out  of  the  hole  and  look 
around,  they  were  too  far  from  the  ground 
to  see  the  flowers  sleeping  in  the  dusk 
below.  They  could  only  sniff,  sniff,  sniff 
with  their  sharp  little  turned-up  noses, 
and  wonder  what  flowers  look  like,  any 
way. 


The  Raccoon  Children  33 

When  their  mother  was  with  them  for  a 
time,  and  that  was  while  they  were  drink- 
ing the  warm  milk  that  she  always  carried 
for  them,  she  told  them  stories  of  the 
flowers  and  trees.  She  had  begun  by 
telling  them  animal  stories,  but  she  found 
that  it  made  them  cowardly.  "Just  sup- 
posing," one  young  Raccoon  had  said,  "  a 
great  big,  dreadful  Snail  should  come  up 
this  tree  and  eat  us  all  !  " 

The  mother  told  them  that  Snails  were 
small  and  slow  and  weak,  and  never 
climbed  trees  or  ate  people,  but  it  did  no 
good,  and  her  children  were  always  afraid 
of  Snails  until  they  had  seen  one  for 
themselves.  .  After  that  she  told  them 
stories  of  the  flowers,  and  when  they 
asked  if  the  flowers  would  ever  come  to 
see  them,  she  said,  "  No,  indeed  !  You 
will  never  see  them  until  you  can  climb 
down  the  tree  and  walk  among  them,  for 
they  grow  with  their  feet  in  the  ground 
and  never  go  anywhere."  There  were 

3 


34      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

many  stories  which  they  wanted  over  and 
over  again,  but  the  one  they  liked  best  of 
all  was  that  about  the  wicked,  wicked 
Poison  Ivy  and  the  gentle  Spotted  Touch- 
me-not  who  grew  near  him  and  undid  all 
the  trouble  that  the  Ivy  made. 

When  the  night  came  for  the  young 
Raccoons  to  climb  down  from  their  tree 
and  learn  to  hunt,  all  the  early  spring 
blossoms  were  gone,  and  only  the  ripening 
seed-vessels  showed  where  nodding  flow- 
ers had  been.  You  would  have  expected 
the  Raccoon  children  to  be  disappointed, 
yet  there  were  so  many  other  things  to  see 
and  learn  about  that  it  was  not  until  three 
nights  later  that  they  thought  much  of 
the  flowers.  They  might  not  have  done 
so  then  if  Little  Sister  had  not  lost  her 
hold  upon  the  oak-tree  bark  and  fallen 
with  her  forepaws  on  a  scarlet  jack-in-the- 
pulpit  berry. 

They  had  to  learn  to  climb  quickly  and 
strongly  up  all  sorts  of  trees.  Perhaps 


The  Raccoon  Children  35 

Mrs.  Raccoon  had  chosen  an  oak  for  her 
nest  because  that  was  rough  and  easily 
climbed.  There  were  many  good  places 
for  Raccoons  to  grip  with  their  twenty 
strong  claws  apiece.  After  they  had 
learned  oaks  they  took  maples,  ironwoods, 
and  beeches — each  a  harder  lesson  than 
the  one  before. 

"When  you  climb  a  tree,"  said  their 
mother,  "always  look  over  the  trunk  and 
the  largest  branches  for  hiding-places, 
whether  you  want  to  use  one  then  or 
not." 

"  Why  ?  "  asked  three  of  the  four  chil- 
dren. Big  Brother,  who  was  rather  vain, 
was  looking  at  the  five  beautiful  black 
rings  and  the  beautiful  black  tip  of  his 
wonderful  bushy  tail.  Between  the  black 
rings  were  whitish  ones,  and  he  thought 
such  things  much  more  interesting  than 
holes  in  trees. 

"  Because,"  said  the  Mother  Raccoon, 
"  you  may  be  far  from  home  some  night 


36      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

and  want  a  safe  place  to  sleep  in  all  day. 
Or  if  a  man  and  his  Dogs  are  chasing 
you,  you  must  climb  into  the  first  hiding- 
place  you  can.  We  Raccoons  are  too  fat 
and  slow  to  run  away  from  them,  and  the 
rings  on  our  tails  and  the  black  patches  on 
our  broad  faces  might  show  from  the 
ground.  If  the  hole  is  a  small  one,  make  it 
cover  your  head  and  your  tail  anyway,  and 
as  much  of  your  brown  body  fur  as  you 
can." 

Mother  Raccoon  looked  sternly  at  Big 
Brother  because  he  had  not  been  listening, 
and  he  gave  a  slight  jump  and  asked, 
"  W-what  did  you  say  ?  " 

"  What  did  I  say  ?  "  she  replied.  "  You 
should  have  paid  better  attention." 

"Yes'm,"  said  Big  Brother,  who  was 
now  very  meek. 

"  I  shall  not  repeat  it,"  said  his  mother, 
"  but  I  will  tell  you  not  to  grow  vain  of 
your  fur.  It  is  very  handsome,  and  so  is 
that  of  your  sisters  and  your  brother.  So 


The  Raccoon  Children  37 

is  mine,  and  so  was  your  father's  the  last 
time  I  saw  him.  Yet  nearly  all  the 
trouble  that  Raccoons  have  is  on  account 
of  their  fur.  Never  try  to  show  it 
off." 

The  time  came  for  the  young  Rac- 
coons to  stop  drinking  milk  from  their 
mother's  body,  and  when  they  tried  to  do 
so  she  only  walked  away  from  them. 

"  I  cannot  work  so  hard  to  care  for 
you,"  said  she.  "  I  am  so  tired  and  thin, 
now,  that  my  skin  is  loose,  and  you  must 
find  your  own  food.  You  are  getting 
forty  fine  teeth  apiece,  and  I  never  saw 
a  better  lot  of  claws  on  any  Raccoon 
family,  if  I  do  say  it." 

They  used  to  go  hunting  together,  for  it 
is  the  custom  for  Raccoons  to  go  in  parties 
of  from  five  to  eight,  hunt  all  night,  and 
then  hide  somewhere  until  the  next  night. 
They  did  not  always  come  home  at  sun- 
rise, and  it  made  a  pleasant  change  to 
sleep  in  different  trees.  One  day  they 


38      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

all  cuddled  down  in  the  hollow  of  an  old 
maple,  just  below  where  the  branches 
come  out.  Mother  Raccoon  had  climbed 
the  tree  first  and  was  curled  away  in  the 
very  bottom  of  the  hole.  The  four 
children  were  not  tired  and  had  n't  wanted 
to  go  to  bed  at  all.  Little  Sister  had 
made  a  dreadful  face  when  her  mother 
called  her  up  the  tree,  and  if  it  had  not 
already  been  growing  light,  Mrs.  Rac- 
coon would  probably  have  seen  it  and 
punished  her. 

Big  Sister  curled  down  beside  her 
mother  and  Little  Sister  was  rather  above 
them  and  beside  mischievous  Little 
Brother.  Last  of  all  came  Big  Brother, 
who  had  stopped  to  scratch  his  ear  with 
his  hind  foot.  He  was  very  proud  of  his 
little  round  ears,  and  often  scratched 
them  in  this  way  to  make  sure  that  the 
fur  lay  straight  on  them.  He  was  so 
slow  in  reaching  the  hole  that  before  he 
got  into  it  a  Robin  had  begun  his  morn- 


The  Raccoon  Children  39 

ing  song  of  "  Cheerily,  cheerily,  cheer- 
up  ! "  and  a  Chipmunk  perched  on  a 
stump  to  make  his  morning  toilet. 

He  got  all  settled,  and  Little  Brother 
was  half  asleep  beside  him,  when  he 
remembered  his  tail  and  sat  up  to  have 
one  more  look  at  it.  Little  Brother 
growled  sleepily  and  told  him  to  "  let  his 
old  tail  alone  and  come  to  bed,  as  long 
as  they  could  n't  hunt  any  more."  But 
Big  Brother  thought  he  saw  a  sand-burr 
on  his  tail,  and  wanted  to  pull  it  out 
before  it  hurt  the  fur.  Then  he  began 
to  look  at  the  bare,  tough  pads  on  his 
feet,  and  to  notice  how  finely  he  could 
spread  his  toes.  Those  of  his  front  feet 
he  could  spread  especially  wide.  He 
balanced  himself  on  the  edge  of  the  hole 
and  held  them  spread  out  before  him. 
It  was  still  dark  enough  for  him  to  see 
well.  "  Come  here,  Little  Brother,"  he 
cried.  "Wake  up,  and  see  how  big  my 
feet  are  getting." 


4O      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Mother  Raccoon  growled  at  them  to 
be  good  children  and  go  to  sleep,  but 
her  voice  sounded  dreamy  and  far  away 
because  she  had  to  talk  through  part  of 
her  own  fur  and  most  of  her  daughters'. 

Little  Brother  lost  his  patience,  un- 
rolled himself  with  a  spring,  jumped  to 
the  opening,  and  knocked  his  brother 
down.  It  was  dreadful.  Of  course  Big 
Brother  was  not  much  hurt,  for  he  was 
very  fat  and  his  fur  was  both  long  and 
thick,  but  he  turned  over  and  over  on  his 
way  to  the  ground  before  he  alighted  on 
his  feet.  He  turned  so  fast  and  Little 
Brother's  eyes  hurt  him  so  that  it  looked 
as  though  Big  Brother  had  about  three 
heads,  three  tails,  and  twelve  feet.  He 
called  out  as  he  fell,  and  that  awakened 
the  sisters,  who  began  to  cry,  and  Mother 
Raccoon,  who  was  so  scared  that  she 
began  to  scold. 

Such  a  time !  Mother  Raccoon  found 
out  what  had  happened,  and  then  she  said 


KNOCKED  HIS  BROTHER  DOWN.  Page  ^o 


The  Raccoon  Children  41 

to  Little  Brother,  "  Did  you  mean  to  push 
him  down  ? " 

"  No,  ma'am,"  answered  Little  Brother, 
hanging  his  head.  "  Anyhow  I  did  n't 
mean  to  after  I  saw  him  going.  Perhaps 
I  did  mean  to  before  that."  You  see  he 
was  a  truthful  Raccoon  even  when  he  was 
most  naughty,  and  there  is  always  hope 
for  a  Raccoon  who  will  tell  the  truth,  no 
matter  how  hard  it  is  to  do  so. 

Big  Brother  climbed  slowly  up  the  trunk 
of  the  oak-tree,  while  more  and  more  of  the 
daytime  people  came  to  look  at  him.  He 
could  not  see  well  now,  and  so  was  very 
awkward.  When  he  reached  the  hole  he  was 
hot  and  cross,  and  complained  to  his  moth- 
er. "  Make  him  quit  teasing  me,"  he  said, 
pointing  one  forepaw  at  Little  Brother. 

"  I  will,"  answered  Mother  Raccoon ; 
"  but  you  were  just  as  much  to  blame  as 
he,  for  if  you  had  cuddled  down  quietly 
when  I  told  you  to,  you  would  have  been 
dreaming  long  ago.  Now  you  must 


42      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

sleep  where  I  was,  at  the  lower  end  of 
the  hole.  Little  Brother  must  go  next, 
and  I  do  not  want  to  hear  one  word  from 
either  of  you.  Sisters  next,  and  I  will 
sleep  by  the  opening.  You  children  must 
remember  that  it  is  no  time  for  talking  to 
each  other,  or  looking  at  claws,  or  get- 
ting sand-burrs  out  of  your  tails  after  you 
have  been  sent  to  bed.  Go  to  sleep,  and 
don't  awaken  until  the  sun  has  gone  down 
and  you  are  ready  to  be  my  good  little 
Raccoons  again." 

Her  children  were  asleep  long  before 
she  was,  and  she  talked  softly  to  herself 
after  they  were  dreaming.  "They  do 
not  mean  to  be  naughty,"  she  said.  "  Yet 
it  makes  my  fur  stand  on  end  to  think 
what  might  have  happened.  ...  I 
ought  not  to  have  curled  up  for  the  day 
until  they  had  done  so.  ...  Mothers 
should  always  be  at  the  top  of  the  heap." 
Then  she  fixed  herself  for  a  long,  restful 
day's  sleep. 


THE    TIMID    LITTLE    GROUND 
HOG 

IT  was  not  often  that  the  little  Ground 
*  Hogs  were  left  alone  in  the  daytime. 
Before  they  were  born  their  mother  had 
been  heard  to  say  that  she  had  her  opin- 
ion of  any  Ground  Hog  who  would  be 
seen  out  after  sunrise.  Mr.  Ground  Hog 
felt  in  the  same  way,  and  said  if  he  ever 
got  to  running  around  by  daylight,  like 
some  of  his  relatives,  people  might  call 
him  a  Woodchuck.  He  thought  that 
any  one  who  ate  twigs,  beets,  turnips, 
young  tree-bark,  and  other  green  things 
from  sunset  to  sunrise  ought  to  be  able  to 
get  along  until  the  next  sunset  without  a 
lunch.  He  said  that  any  Ground  Hog 
who  wanted  more  was  a  Pig. 

43 


44      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

After  the  baby  Ground  Hogs  were 
born,  matters  were  different.  They  could 
not  go  out  at  night  to  feed  for  them- 
selves, and  their  stomachs  were  so  tiny 
and  held  so  little  at  a  time  that  they  had 
to  be  filled  very  often.  Mr.  Ground  Hog 
was  never  at  home  now,  and  the  care  all 
fell  upon  his  hard-working  wife. 

"  You  know,  my  dear,"  he  had  said, 
"  that  I  should  only  be  in  the  way  if  I 
were  to  stay  at  home,  for  I  am  not  clever 
and  patient  with  children  as  you  are. 
No,  I  think  I  will  go  away  and  see  to 
some  matters  which  I  have  rather  neg- 
lected of  late.  When  the  children  are 
grown  up  and  you  have  more  time  to 
give  me,  I  will  come  back  to  you." 

Then  Mr.  Ground  Hog  trotted  away  to 
join  a  party  of  his  friends  who  had  just 
told  their  wives  something  of  the  same 
sort,  and  they  all  went  together  to  the 
farmer's  turnip  patch  and  had  a  delightful 
time  until  morning.  Mrs.  Ground  Hog 


The  Timid  Little  Ground  Hog      45 

looked  after  him  as  he  trotted  away  and 
wished  that  she  could  go  too.  He  looked 
so  handsome  with  the  moonlight  shining 
down  on  his  long,  thick,  reddish  fur,  and 
showing  the  black  streak  on  his  back 
where  the  fur  was  tipped  with  gray.  He 
was  fat  and  shaky,  with  a  baggy  skin,  and 
when  he  stopped  to  sit  up  on  his  haunches 
and  wave  his  paws  at  her  and  comb  his 
face-fur,  she  thought  him  just  as  hand- 
some as  he  had  been  in  the  early  spring 
when  they  first  met.  That  had  been  in  a 
parsnip  patch  where  there  was  good  feed- 
ing until  the  farmer  found  that  the  Ground 
Hogs  were  there,  and  dug  the  rest  of  his 
vegetables  and  stored  them  in  his  cellar. 
Such  midnight  meals  as  they  had  eaten 
there  together  !  Mrs.  Ground  Hog  said 
she  never  saw  a  parsnip  afterward  without 
thinking  of  their  courtship. 

She  had  been  as  handsome  as  he,  and 
there  were  many  other  Ground  Hogs  who 
admired  her.  But  now  she  was  thin  and 


46      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

did  not  have  many  chances  to  comb  her 
fur  with  her  fore  paws.  She  could  not  go 
with  him  to  the  turnip  patch  because  she 
did  not  wish  to  go  so  far  from  her  babies. 
Thinking  of  that  reminded  her  to  go  into 
her  sidehill  burrow  and  see  what  they 
were  doing.  Then  she  lay  down  and  let 
them  draw  the  warm  milk  from  her  body. 
While  they  were  feeding  she  felt  of  them, 
and  thought  how  fast  they  were  growing. 
It  would  be  only  a  short  time  before  they 
could  trot  around  the  fields  by  themselves 
and  whistle  shrilly  as  they  dodged  down 
into  their  own  burrows.  "  Ah  !  "  said  she, 
"  this  is  better  than  turnip  patches  or 
even  parsnips." 

When  they  had  finished,  their  mother 
left  them  and  went  out  to  feed.  She  had 
always  been  a  hearty  eater,  but  now  she 
had  to  eat  enough  more  to  make  the  milk 
for  her  babies.  She  often  thought  that  if 
Ground  Hog  babies  could  eat  anything 
else  their  father  might  have  learned  to 


The  Timid  Little  Ground  Hog      47 

help  feed  them.  She  thought  of  this 
especially  when  she  saw  the  Great  Horned 
Owl  carrying  food  home  to  his  son  and 
daughter.  "  It  is  what  comes  of  being 
four-legged,"  said  she,  "  and  I  would  n't 
be  an  Owl  for  anything,  so  I  won't  grum- 
ble." After  this  she  was  more  cheerful. 

When  she  left  the  burrow  she  always 
said  :  "  I  am  going  out  to  feed,  and  I  shall 
not  be  gone  very  long.  Don't  be  afraid, 
for  you  have  a  good  burrow,  and  it  is  nice 
and  dark  outside." 

The  children  would  cry :  "  And  you 
will  surely  come  home  before  sunrise  ?  " 

"  Surely,"  she  always  answered  as  she 
trotted  away.  Then  the  children  would 
rest  happily  in  their  burrow-nest. 

But  now  Mrs.  Ground  Hog  was  hungry, 
and  it  was  broad  daylight.  She  knew 
that  it  was  because  her  children  grew 
bigger  every  day  and  had  to  have  more 
and  more  milk.  This  meant  that  she 
must  eat  more,  or  else  when  they  wanted 


48      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

milk  there  would  not  be  enough  ready. 
She  knew  that  she  must  begin  to  feed  by 
day  as  well  as  by  night,  and  she  was  glad 
that  she  could  see  fairly  well  if  the  sun 
were  not  shining  into  her  eyes. 

"  Children,"  said  she  to  them,  just  as 
they  finished  their  morning  lunch,  "  I  am 
very  hungry  and  I  am  going  out  to  feed. 
You  will  be  quite  safe  here  and  I  want 
you  to  be  good  while  I  am  gone." 

The  young  Ground  Hogs  began  to  cry 
and  clutch  at  her  fur  with  their  weak  little 
paws.  "  Oh,  don't  go,"  they  said.  "  Please 
don't  go.  We  don't  want  to  stay  alone 
in  the  daytime.  We  're  afraid." 

"  I  must,"  said  she,  "  or  I  shall  have  no 
milk  for  you.  And  then,  you  would  n't 
have  me  lie  here  all  day  too  hungry  to 
sleep,  would  you  ?  " 

"  N-no,"  said  they  ;  "  but  you  '11  come 
back  soon,  won't  you  ?  " 

"  Yes,"  said  she,  and  she  shook  off  their 
clinging  paws  and  poked  back  the  daugh- 


The  Timid  Little  Ground  Hog      49 

ter  who  caught  on  again,  and  trotted  away 
as  fast  as  she  could.  It  was  the  first  time 
that  she  had  been  out  by  daylight,  and 
everything  looked  queer.  The  colors 
looked  too  bright,  and  there  seemed  to 
be  more  noise  than  usual,  and  she  met 
several  people  whom  she  had  never  seen 
before.  She  stopped  for  a  minute  to  look 
at  an  Ovenbird's  nest.  The  mother-bird 
was  inside,  sitting  there  very  still  and 
brave,  although  she  was  much  frightened. 

"  Good-morning,"  said  Mrs.  Ground 
Hog.  "  I  was  just  admiring  your  nest. 
I  have  never  seen  it  by  daylight." 

"  Good-morning,"  answered  the  Oven- 
bird.  "  I  'm  glad  you  fancy  my  nest,  but 
I  hope  you  don't  like  to  eat  meat." 

"Meat?"  answered  Mrs.  Ground  Hog. 
"  I  never  touch  it."  And  she  smiled  and 
showed  all  her  teeth. 

"  Oh,"  exclaimed  the  Ovenbird,  "  I  see 
you  don't,  for  you  have  gnawing-teeth, 
rather  like  those  of  the  Rabbits."  Then 


50      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

she  hopped  out  of  the  nest  and  let  Mrs. 
Ground  Hog  peep  in  to  see  how  the 
inside  was  finished  and  also  to  see  the  four 
speckled  eggs  which  lay  there. 

"  It  is  a  lovely  nest,"  said  Mrs.  Ground 
Hog,  "and  those  eggs  are  beauties.  But 
I  promised  the  children  that  I  would 
hurry.  Good-by."  She  trotted  happily 
away,  while  Mrs.  Ovenbird  settled  her- 
self upon  her  eggs  again  and  thought 
what  a  pleasant  call  she  had  had  and 
what  an  excellent  and  intelligent  person 
Mrs.  Ground  Hog  was  ! 

All  this  time  the  children  at  home  were 
talking  together  about  themselves  and 
what  their  mother  had  told  them.  Once 
there  was  a  long  pause  which  lasted  until 
the  brother  said  :  "  I  'm  not  afraid,  are 
you?" 

"  Of  course  not,"  said  they. 

"  Because  there  is  n't  anything  to  be 
afraid  of,"  said  he. 

"  Not  anything,"  said  they. 


The  Timid  Little  Ground  Hog       51 

"  And  I  would  n't  be  afraid  anyway," 
said  he. 

"  Neither  would  we,"  answered  the  sis- 
ters. 

There  was  another  long  pause. 

"  She  said  we  'd  be  just  as  safe  as  if  it 
were  dark,"  said  the  big  sister. 

"  Of  course,"  said  the  brother. 

"  And  she  said  she  'd  come  back  as 
soon  as  she  could,"  said  the  second 
sister. 

"  I  wish  she  'd  come  now,"  said  the 
smallest  sister. 

There  was  another  long  pause. 

"  You  don't  suppose  anybody  would 
come  here  just  to  scare  us,  do  you?" 
asked  the  second  sister. 

"  See  here,"  said  the  brother,  "  I  wish 
you  'd  quit  saying  things  to  make  a  fellow 
afraid." 

"  You  don't  mean  that  you  are  fright- 
ened ! "  exclaimed  the  three  sisters  to- 
gether. And  the  smallest  one  added : 


52      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  Why,  you  are,  too !  I  can  feel  you 
tremble." 

"Well,  I  don't  care,"  said  the  brother. 
"  I  'm  not  afraid  of  people,  anyhow.  If  it 
were  only  dark  I  would  n't  mind." 

"  Oh,  are  you  afraid  of  the  daylight 
too?"  cried  each  of  the  sisters.  "  So  am 
I  ! "  Then  they  all  trembled  together. 

"  I  tell  you  what  let 's  do,"  said  the 
smallest  sister.  "  Let 's  all  stop  looking 
toward  the  light  end  of  the  burrow,  and 
cuddle  up  together  and  cover  our  eyes 
and  make  believe  it 's  night."  They  did 
this  and  felt  better.  They  even  played 
that  they  heard  the  few  noises  of  the 
night-time.  A  Crow  cawed  outside,  and 
the  brother  said,  "  Did  you  hear  that 
Owl  ?  That  was  the  Great  Horned  Owl, 
the  one  who  had  to  hatch  the  eggs,  you 
know." 

When  another  Crow  cawed,  the  small- 
est sister  said,  "  Was  that  his  cousin,  the 
Screech  Owl?" 


The  Timid  Little  Ground  Hog       53 

"  Yes,"  answered  the  big  sister.  "  He 
is  the  one  who  used  to  bring  things  for 
the  Great  Horned  Owl  to  eat." 

So  they  amused  themselves  and  each 
other,  and  really  got  along  very  well  ex- 
cept when,  once  in  a  while,  they  opened 
their  eyes  a  little  crack  to  see  if  it  were 
not  getting  really  dark.  Then  they  had 
to  begin  all  over  again.  At  last  their 
mother  came,  and  what  a  comfort  it  was  ! 
How  glad  she  was  to  be  back,  and  how 
much  she  had  to  tell  them  !  All  about 
the  Ovenbird's  nest  and  the  four  eggs  in 
it,  and  how  the  Ovenbirds  spent  their 
nights  in  sleeping  and  their  days  in  work 
and  play. 

"  I  wonder  if  the  little  Ovenbirds  will 
be  scared  when  they  have  to  stay  alone 
in  the  daytime  ?  "  said  the  smallest  sister. 

"  They  would  be  more  scared  if  they 
had  to  stay  alone  at  night,"  said  their 
mother. 

"  At  night  ! "   exclaimed  all  the  young 


54      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Ground  Hogs.  "  Why,  it  is  dark  then  !" 
"  They  might  be  afraid  of  the  darkness," 
said  their  mother.  Then  the  children 
laughed  and  thought  she  was  making  fun 
of  them.  They  drank  some  milk  and 
went  to  sleep  like  good  little  Ground 
Hogs,  but  even  after  he  was  half  asleep 
the  big  brother  laughed  out  loud  at  the 
thought  of  the  Ovenbird  babies  being 
scared  at  night.  He  could  understand 
any  one's  being  afraid  of  daylight,  but 
darkness ! 


THE   YOUNG   RACCOONS   GO 
TO   A    PARTY 

IT  was  not  very  many  nights  after  Big 
*  Brother  had  tumbled  from  the  maple- 
tree,  when  he  and  the  other  children  were 
invited  to  a  Raccoon  party  down  by  the 
pond.  The  water  was  low,  and  in  the 
small  pools  by  the  shore  there  were 
many  fresh-water  clams  and  small  fishes, 
such  as  Raccoons  like  best  of  all.  A 
family  of  six  young  Raccoons  who  lived 
very  near  the  pond  had  found  them  just 
before  sunrise,  when  they  had  to  climb  off 
to  bed.  They  knew  there  was  much 
more  food  there  than  they  could  eat 
alone,  so  their  mother  had  let  them  invite 
their  four  friends  who  lived  in  the  hollow 
of  the  oak-tree.  The  party  was  to  begin 

55 


56      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

the  next  evening  at  moonrise,  and  the 
four  children  who  lived  in  the  oak-tree 
got  their  invitation  just  as  they  were  go- 
ing to  sleep  for  the  day.  They  were 
very  much  excited  over  it,  for  they  had 
never  been  to  a  party. 

"  I  wish  we  could  go  now,"  said  Big 
Brother. 

"Yes,  lots  of  fun  it  would  be  now!" 
answered  Little  Brother.  "  The  sun  is 
almost  up,  and  there  are  no  clouds  in  the 
sky.  We  could  n't  see  a  thing  unless  we 
shaded  our  eyes  with  our  fore  paws,  and 
if  we  had  to  use  our  fore  paws  in  that 
way  we  could  n't  eat." 

"You  do  eat  at  parties,  don't  you?" 
asked  Little  Sister,  who  had  not  quite 
understood  what  was  said. 

"  Of  course,"  shouted  her  brothers. 
"  That  is  what  parties  are  for." 

"  I  thought  maybe  you  talked  some," 
said  Big  Sister. 

"  I  suppose  you  do  have  to,  some,"  said 


Young  Raccoons  Go  to  a  Party      57 

Big  Brother,  "  but  I  know  you  eat.  I  Ve 
heard  people  tell  about  parties  lots  of 
times,  and  they  always  began  by  telling 
what  they  ate.  That  's  what  makes  it  a 
party." 

"  Oh,  I  wish  it  were  night  and  time  to 
go,"  sighed  Little  Brother." 

"  I  don't,"  said  Little  Sister.  "  I  would 
n't  have  any  fun  if  I  were  to  go  now. 
I  'd  rather  wait  until  my  stomach  is 
empty." 

"  There  !  "  said  their  mother.  "  You 
children  have  talked  long  enough.  Now 
curl  down  and  go  to  sleep.  The  birds 
are  already  singing  their  morning  songs, 
and  the  Owls  and  Bats  were  dreaming 
long  ago.  It  will  make  night-time  come 
much  sooner  if  you  do  not  stay  awake." 

"  We  're  not  a  bit  sleepy,"  cried  all  the 
young  Raccoons  together. 

"  That  makes  no  difference  at  all,"  said 
their  mother,  and  she  spoke  quite  sternly. 
"  Cuddle  down  for  the  day  now,  cover 


58      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

your  eyes,  and  stop  talking.  I  do  not 
say  you  must  sleep,  but  you  must  stop 
talking." 

They  knew  that  when  she  spoke  in  that 
way  and  said  "  must,"  there  was  nothing 
to  do  but  to  mind.  So  they  cuddled 
down,  and  every  one  of  them  was  asleep 
before  you  could  drop  an  acorn.  Mother 
Raccoon  had  known  it  would  be  so. 

When  they  awakened,  early  the  next 
night,  each  young  Raccoon  had  to  make 
himself  look  as  neat  as  possible.  There 
were  long  fur  to  be  combed,  faces  and 
paws  to  be  washed,  and  twenty-three 
burrs  to  be  taken  out  of  Little  Brother's 
tail.  He  began  to  take  them  out  himself, 
but  his  mother  found  that  whenever  he 
got  one  loose  he  stuck  it  onto  one  of  the 
other  children,  so  she  scolded  him  and 
made  him  sit  on  a  branch  by  himself  while 
she  worked  at  the  burrs.  Sometimes  she 
couldn  't  help  pulling  the  fur,  and  then 
he  tried  to  wriggle  away. 


Young  Raccoons  Go  to  a  Party      59 

"You  Ve  got  enough  out,"  he  cried. 
"  Let  the  rest  go." 

"  You  should  have  thought  sooner  how 
it  would  hurt,"  she  said.  "  You  have 
been  told  again  and  again  to  keep  away 
from  the  burrs,  and  you  are  just  as  care- 
less as  you  were  the  first  night  you  left 
the  tree."  Then  she  took  out  another 
burr  and  dropped  it  to  the  ground. 

"  Ouch  !  "  said  he.     "  Let  me  go  ! " 

"  Not  until  I  am  done,"  she  answered. 
"  No  child  of  mine  shall  ever  go  to  a  party 
looking  as  you  do." 

After  that  Little  Brother  tried  to  hold 
still,  and  he  had  time  to  think  how  glad 
he  was  that  he  had  n  't  stuck  any  more 
burrs  on  the  other  children.  If  he  had 
gotten  more  onto  them,  he  would  have 
had  to  wait  while  they  were  pulled  off 
again,  and  then  they  might  have  been 
late  for  the  party.  If  he  had  been  very 
good,  he  would  have  been  glad  they 
did  n't  have  to  be  hurt  as  he  was.  But  he 


60      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

was  not  very  good,  and  he  never  thought 
of  that. 

When  he  was  ready  at  last,  Mother 
Raccoon  made  her  four  children  sit  in  a 
row  while  she  talked  to  them.  "  Re- 
member to  walk  on  your  toes,"  said  she, 
"  although  you  may  stand  flat-footed  if 
you  wish.  Don't  act  greedy  if  you  can 
help  it.  Go  into  the  water  as  much  as 
you  choose,  but  don't  try  to  dive,  even  if 
they  dare  you  to.  Raccoons  can  never 
learn  to  dive,  no  matter  how  well  they 
swim.  And  be  sure  to  wash  your  food 
before  you  eat  it." 

All  the  young  Raccoons  said  "  Yes  'm," 
and  thought  they  would  remember  every 
word.  The  first  moonbeam  shone  on 
the  top  of  the  oak-tree,  and  Mrs.  Rac- 
coon said  :  "  Now  you  may  go.  Be  good 
children  and  remember  what  I  told  you. 
Don't  stay  too  long.  Start  home  when 
you  see  the  first  light  in  the  east." 

"Yes'm,"    said   the    young    Raccoons, 


Young  Raccoons  Go  to  a  Party      61 

as  they  walked  off  very  properly  toward 
the  pond.  After  they  were  well  away 
from  the  oak-tree,  they  heard  their  mo- 
ther calling  to  them :  "  Remember  to 
walk  on  your  toes  !  " 

Raccoons  cannot  go  very  fast,  and  the 
moon  was  shining  brightly  when  they 
reached  the  pond  and  met  their  six  friends. 
Such  frolics  as  they  had  in  the  shallow 
water,  swimming,  twisting,  turning,  scoop- 
ing up  food  with  their  busy  fore  paws, 
going  up  and  down  the  beach,  and  roll- 
ing on  the  sand !  They  never  once  re- 
membered what  their  mother  had  told 
them,  and  they  acted  exactly  as  they  had 
been  in  the  habit  of  doing  every  day. 
Big  Brother  looked  admiringly  at  his 
own  tail  every  chance  he  got,  although 
he  had  been  told  particularly  not  to  act 
as  if  he  thought  himself  fine-looking. 
Little  Brother  rolled  into  a  lot  of  sand- 
burrs  and  got  his  fur  so  matted  that  he 
looked  worse  than  ever.  Big  Sister 


62      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

snatched  food  from  other  Raccoons,  and 
not  one  of  them  remembered  about  walk- 
ing on  tiptoe.  Little  Sister  ate  half 
the  time  without  washing  her  food.  Of 
course  that  did  n't  matter  when  the  food 
was  taken  from  the  pond,  but  when  they 
found  some  on  the  beach  and  ate  it  with- 
out washing — that  was  dreadful.  No 
Raccoon  who  is  anybody  at  all  will  do 
that. 

The  mother  of  the  family  of  six  looked 
on  from  a  tree  near  by.  The  children 
did  not  know  that  she  was  there.  "  What 
manners  ! "  said  she.  "  I  shall  never  have 
them  invited  here  again."  Just  then  she 
saw  one  of  her  own  sons  eat  without 
washing  his  food,  and  she  groaned  out 
loud.  "  My  children  are  forgetting  too," 
she  said.  "  I  have  told  him  hundreds  of 
times  that  if  he  did  that  way  every  day 
he  would  do  so  at  a  party,  but  he  has 
always  said  he  would  remember." 

The   mother  of  the  four  young   Rac- 


Young  Raccoons  Go  to  a  Party      63 

coons  was  out  hunting  and  found  herself 
near  the  pond.  "  How  noisy  those  chil- 
dren are  !  "  she  said  to  herself.  "  Night 
people  should  be  quiet."  She  tiptoed 
along  to  a  pile  of  rocks  and  peeped  be- 
tween them  to  see  what  was  going  on. 
She  saw  her  children's  footprints  on  the 
sand.  "  Aha  !  "  said  she.  "  So  they  did 
walk  flat-footed  after  all." 

She  heard  somebody  scrambling  down 
a  tree  near  by.  "  Good-evening,"  said  a 
pleasant  Raccoon  voice  near  her.  It  was 
the  mother  of  the  six.  "  Are  you  watch- 
ing the  children's  party  ?  "  asked  the  new- 
comer. "  I  hope  you  did  not  notice  how 
badly  my  son  is  behaving.  I  have  tried 
to  teach  my  children  good  manners,  but 
they  will  be  careless  when  I  am  not 
looking,  and  then,  of  course,  they  forget 
in  company." 

That  made  the  mother  of  the  four  feel 
more  comfortable.  "  I  know  just  how 
that  is,"  said  she.  "  Mine  mean  to  be 


64      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

good,  but  they  are  so  careless.  It  is 
very  discouraging." 

The  two  mothers  talked  for  a  long  time 
in  whispers  and  then  each  went  to  her  hole. 

When  the  four  young  Raccoons  came 
home,  it  was  beginning  to  grow  light,  and 
they  kept  close  together  because  they 
were  somewhat  afraid.  Their  mother 
was  waiting  to  see  them  settled  for  the 
day.  She  asked  if  they  had  a  good  time, 
and  said  she  was  glad  they  got  home 
promptly.  They  had  been  afraid  she 
would  ask  if  they  had  washed  their  food 
and  walked  on  their  toes.  She  even 
seemed  not  to  notice  Little  Brother's 
matted  coat. 

When  they  awakened  the  next  night, 
the  mother  hurried  them  off  with  her 
to  the  same  pond  where  they  had  been 
to  the  party.  "  I  am  going  to  visit  with 
the  mother  of  your  friends,"  said  she, 
"  and  you  may  play  around  and  amuse 
yourselves." 


Young  Raccoons  Go  to  a  Party      65 

The  young  Raccoons  had  another  fine 
time,  although  Little  Brother  found  it 
very  uncomfortable  to  wear  so  many 
burrs.  They  played  tag  in  the  trees,  and 
ate,  and  swam,  and  lay  on  the  beach. 
While  they  were  lying  there,  the  four 
from  the  oak-tree  noticed  that  their 
mother  was  walking  flat-footed.  There 
was  bright  moonlight  and  anybody  might 
see  her.  They  felt  dreadfully  about  it. 
Then  they  saw  her  begin  to  eat  food 
which  she  had  not  washed.  They  were 
so  ashamed  that  they  did  n't  want  to  look 
their  friends  in  the  eye.  They  did  n't 
know  that  their  friends  were  feeling  in 
the  same  way  because  they  had  seen  their 
mother  doing  ill-mannered  things. 

After  they  reached  home,  Big  Brother 
said,  very  timidly,  to  his  mother  :  "  Did 
you  know  you  ate  some  food  without 
washing  it  ?  " 

"  Oh,  yes,"  she  answered ;  "  it  is  such  a 
bother  to  dip  it  all  in  water." 

5 


66      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  And  you  walked  flat-footed,"  said  Lit- 
tle Brother. 

"  Well,  why  should  n't  I,  if  I  want  to  ?  " 
said  she. 

The  children  began  to  cry :  "  P-peo- 
ple  will  think  you  don't  know  any  b-bet- 
ter,"  said  they.  "  We  were  d-dreadfully 
ashamed." 

"  Oh  ! "  said  their  mother.  "  Oh  !  Oh  ! 
So  you  think  that  my  manners  are  not  so 
good  as  yours  !  Is  that  it  ?  " 

The  young  Raccoons  looked  at  each 
other  in  a  very  uncomfortable  way.  "  We 
suppose  we  don't  always  do  things  right 
ourselves,"  they  answered,  "  but  you  are 
grown  up." 

"Yes,"  replied  their  mother.  "And 
you  will  be." 

For  a  long  time  nobody  spoke,  and 
Little  Sister  sobbed  out  loud.  Then  Mrs. 
Raccoon  spoke  more  gently  :  "  The  sun 
is  rising,"  said  she.  "  We  will  go  to  sleep 
now,  and  when  we  awaken  to-morrow 


Young  Raccoons  Go  to  a  Party      67 

night  we  will  try  to  have  better  manners, 
so  that  we  need  not  be  ashamed  of  each 
other  at  parties  or  at  home." 

Long  after  the  rest  were  dreaming, 
Big  Sister  nudged  Big  Brother  and 
awakened  him.  "  I  understand  it  now," 
she  said.  "  She  did  it  on  purpose." 

"  Who  did  what  ?"  asked  he. 

"  Why,  our  mother.  She  was  rude  on 
purpose  to  let  us  see  how  it  looked." 

Big  Brother  thought  for  a  minute. 
"  Of  course,"  said  he.  "  Of  course  she 
did !  Well  she  won't  ever  have  to  do  it 
again  for  me." 

"  Nor  for  me,"  said  Big  Sister.  Then 
they  went  to  sleep. 


THE   SKUNKS  AND  THE  OVEN- 
BIRD'S  NEST 

TPHE  Skunks  did  not  go  into  society  at 
*•  all.  They  were  very  unpopular,  and 
so  many  people  feared  or  disliked  them 
that  nobody  would  invite  them  to  a  party. 
Indeed,  if  they  had  been  invited  to  a 
party  and  had  gone,  the  other  guests 
would  have  left  at  once.  The  small  peo- 
ple of  the  forest  feared  them  because  they 
were  meat-eaters,  and  the  larger  ones  dis- 
liked them  because  of  their  disagreeable 
habits.  The  Skunks  were  handsome  and 
quiet,  but  they  were  quick-tempered,  and 
as  soon  as  one  of  them  became  angry  he 
threw  a  horrible  smelling  liquid  on  the 
people  who  displeased  him.  It  was  not 
only  horrible  smelling,  but  it  made  those 

68 


Skunks  and  Ovenbird's  Nest        69 

who  had  to  smell  it  steadily  quite  sick, 
and  would,  indeed,  have  killed  them  if 
they  had  not  kept  in  the  fresh  air.  If 
a  drop  of  this  liquid  got  on  to  a  person, 
even  his  wife  and  children  had  to  keep 
away  from  him  for  a  long  time. 

And  the  Skunks  were  so  unreasonable. 
They  would  not  stop  to  see  what  was  the 
real  trouble,  but  if  anybody  ran  into  them 
by  mistake  in  the  darkness,  they  would 
just  as  likely  as  not  throw  the  liquid  at 
once.  Among  themselves  they  seemed  to 
be  quite  happy.  There  were  from  six  to 
ten  children  born  at  a  time  in  each  family. 
These  children  lived  in  the  burrow  with 
their  father  and  mother  until  the  next 
spring,  sleeping  steadily  through  the  cold- 
est weather  of  winter,  and  only  awaken- 
ing when  it  was  warm  enough  for  them  to 
enjoy  life.  When  spring  came,  the  chil- 
dren found  themselves  grown-up  and  went 
off  to  live  their  own  lives  in  new  holes, 
while  their  mothers  took  care  of  the  six 


70      Among  the  Night  Time  People 

or  seven  or  eight  or  nine  or  ten  new 
babies. 

There  was  one  very  interesting  Skunk 
family  in  the  forest,  with  the  father, 
mother,  and  eight  children  living  in  one 
hole.  No  two  of  them  were  marked  in 
exactly  the  same  way,  although  all  were 
stoutly  built,  had  small  heads,  little  round 
ears,  and  beautiful  long  tails  covered  with 
soft,  drooping  hair.  Their  fur  was  rather 
long  and  handsome  and  they  were  dark 
brown  or  black  nearly  all  over.  Most  of 
them  had  a  streak  of  white  on  the  fore- 
head, a  spot  of  it  on  the  neck,  some  on  the 
tail,  and  a  couple  of  stripes  of  it  on  their 
backs.  One  could  see  them  quite  easily 
by  starlight  on  account  of  the  white  fur. 

The  Skunks  were  really  very  proud  of 
their  white  stripes  and  spots.  "  It  is  not 
so  much  having  the  white  fur,"  Mrs. 
Skunk  had  been  heard  to  say,  "  as  it  is 
having  it  where  all  can  see  it.  Most 
animals  wear  the  dark  fur  on  their  backs 


Skunks  and  Ovenbird's  Nest        71 

and  the  light  on  their  bellies,  and  that  is 
to  make  them  safer  from  enemies.  But 
we  dare  to  wear  ours  in  plain  sight.  We 
are  never  afraid." 

And  what  she  said  was  true,  although 
it  hardly  seemed  modest  for  her  to  talk 
about  it  in  that  way.  It  would  have  been 
more  polite  to  let  other  people  tell  how 
brave  her  family  were.  Perhaps,  how- 
ever, if  somebody  else  had  been  telling  it, 
he  would  have  said  that  part  of  their 
courage  was  rudeness. 

Father  Skunk  always  talked  to  his  chil- 
dren as  his  father  had  talked  to  him,  and 
probably  as  his  grandfather  had  also 
talked  when  he  was  raising  a  family. 
"  Never  turn  out  of  your  way  for  any- 
body," said  he.  "  Let  the  other  fellow 
step  aside.  Remember  that,  no  matter 
whom  you  meet  and  no  matter  how  large 
the  other  people  may  be.  If  they  see 
you,  they  will  get  out  of  your  path,  and  if 
they  can't  it  is  not  your  fault.  Don't 


72      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

speak  to  them  and  don't  hurry.       Always 
take  your  time." 

Father  Skunk  was  slow  and  stately.  It 
was  a  sight  worth  seeing  when  he  started 
off  for  a  night's  ramble,  walking  with  a  slow 
and  measured  gait  and  carrying  his  fine  tail 
high  over  his  back.  He  always  went  by 
himself.  "  One  is  company,  two  is  a 
crowd,"  he  would  say  as  he  walked  away. 
When  they  were  old  enough,  the  young 
Skunks  began  to  walk  off  alone  as  soon 
as  it  was  dark.  Mother  Skunk  also  went 
alone,  and  perhaps  she  had  the  best  time 
of  all,  for  it  was  a  great  rest  not  to  have 
eight  babies  tumbling  over  her  back  and 
getting  under  her  feet  and  hanging  on 
to  her  with  their  thirty-two  paws,  and 
sometimes  even  scratching  her  with  their 
one  hundred  and  sixty  claws.  They  still 
slept  through  the  days  in  the  old  hole,  so 
they  were  together  much  of  the  time,  but 
they  did  not  hunt  in  parties,  as  Raccoons 
and  Weasels  do. 


HE  STARTED  OFF  FOR  A  NIGHT'S  RAMBLE. 


Skunks  and  Ovenbird's  Nest         73 

One  of  the  brothers  had  no  white  what- 
ever on  his  tail,  so  they  called  him  the 
Black-tailed  Skunk.  He  had  heard  in 
some  way  that  there  was  an  Ovenbird's 
nest  on  the  ground  by  the  fern  bank,  and 
he  made  up  his  mind  to  find  it  the  very 
next  night  and  eat  the  eggs  which  were 
inside. 

Another  brother  was  called  the  Spotted 
Skunk,  because  the  spot  on  his  neck  was 
so  large.  He  had  found  the  Ovenbird's 
nest  himself,  while  on  his  way  home  in 
the  early  morning.  He  would  have  liked 
to  rob  it  then,  but  he  had  eaten  so  much 
that  night  that  he  thought  it  better  to 
wait. 

So  it  happened  that  when  the  family 
awakened  the  next  night  two  of  the  chil- 
dren had  important  plans  of  their  own. 
Neither  of  them  would  have  told  for  any- 
thing, but  they  could  n't  quite  keep  from 
hinting  about  it  as  they  made  themselves 
ready  to  go  out. 


74      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  Aha ! "  said  the  Black-tailed  Skunk. 
"  I  know  something  you  don't  know." 

"  Oh,  tell  us  ! "  cried  four  or  five  of  the 
other  children,  while  the  Spotted  Skunk 
twisted  his  head  and  said,  "  You  don't 
either ! " 

"  I  do  too ! "  replied  the  Black-tailed 
Skunk. 

"  Children  !  Children  !  "  exclaimed  Mrs. 
Skunk,  while  their  father  said  that  he 
could  n  't  see  where  his  children  got  their 
quarrelsome  disposition,  for  none  of  his 
people  had  ever  contradicted  or  disputed. 
His  wife  told  him  that  she  really  thought 
them  very  good,  and  that  she  was  sure  they 
behaved  much  better  than  most  Skunks  of 
their  age.  Then  their  father  walked  off 
in  his  most  stately  manner,  putting  his 
feet  down  almost  flat,  and  carrying  his  tail 
a  little  higher  than  usual. 

"  I  do  know  something  that  you  don't," 
repeated  the  Black-tailed  Skunk,  "  and 
it  's  something  nice,  too." 


Skunks  and  Ovenbird's  Nest        75 

"  Aw  !  "  said  the  Spotted  Skunk.  "  I 
don't  believe  it,  and  I  don't  care  any- 
how." 

"  I  know  you  don't  know,  and  I  know 
you  'd  want  to  know  if  you  knew  what  I 
know,"  said  the  Black-tailed  Skunk,  who 
was  now  getting  so  excited  that  he  could 
hardly  talk  straight. 

"  Children  !  "  exclaimed  their  mother. 
"  Not  another  word  about  that.  I  do 
wish  you  would  wake  up  good-natured." 

"  He  started  it,"  said  the  Spotted 
Skunk,  "  and  we  're  not  quarrelling  any- 
how. But  I  guess  he  'd  give  a  good  deal 
to  know  where  I  'm  going." 

"  Children  !  "  repeated  their  mother. 
"  Go  at  once.  I  will  not  have  you  talkirig 
in  this  way  before  your  brothers  and 
sisters.  Do  not  stop  to  talk,  but  go  ! " 

So  the  two  brothers  started  out  for  the 
night  and  each  thought  he  would  go  a 
roundabout  way  to  fool  the  other.  The 
Black-tailed  Skunk  went  to  the  right,  and 


76      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

the  Spotted  Skunk  went  to  the  left,  but 
each  of  them,  you  know,  really  started  to 
rob  the  Ovenbird's  nest.  It  was  a  very 
dark  night.  Even  the  stars  were  all  hid- 
den behind  thick  clouds,  and  one  could 
hardly  see  one's  forepaws  while  walking. 
But,  of  course,  the  night-prowlers  of  the 
forest  are  used  to  this,  and  four-footed 
people  are  not  so  likely  to  stumble  and 
fall  as  two-footed  ones.  Besides,  young 
Skunks  have  to  remember  where  logs  and 
stumps  of  trees  are,  just  as  other  people 
have  to  remember  their  lessons. 

So  it  happened  that,  while  Mrs.  Oven- 
bird  was  sleeping  happily  with  her  four 
eggs  safe  and  warm  under  her  breast,  two 
p'eople  were  coming  from  different  ways 
to  rob  her.  Such  a  snug  nest  as  it  was  ! 
She  had  chosen  a  tiny  hollow  in  the 
fern  bank  and  had  cunningly  woven  dry 
grasses  and  leaves  into  a  ball-shaped  nest, 
which  fitted  neatly  into  the  hollow  and 
had  a  doorway  on  one  side. 


Skunks  and  Ovenbird's  Nest        77 

The  Black-tailed  Skunk  sneaked  up  to 
the  nest  from  one  side.  The  Spotted 
Skunk  sneaked  up  from  the  other  side. 
Once  the  Black-tailed  Skunk  thought  he 
heard  some  other  creature  moving  toward 
him.  At  the  same  minute  the  Spotted 
Skunk  thought  he  heard  somebody,  so  he 
stopped  to  listen.  Neither  heard  any- 
thing. Mrs.  Ovenbird  was  sure  that  she 
heard  a  leaf  rustle  outside,  and  it  made 
her  anxious  until  she  remembered  that  a 
dead  twig  might  have  dropped  from  the 
beech-tree  overhead  and  hit  the  dry  leaves 
below. 

Slowly  the  two  brothers  crept  toward 
the  nest  and  each  other.  They  moved 
very  quietly,  because  each  wanted  to  catch 
the  mother-bird  if  he  could.  Close  to  the 
nest  hollow  they  crouched  and  sprang 
with  jaws  open  and  sharp  teeth  ready  to 
bite.  There  was  a  sudden  crashing  of 
leaves  and  ferns.  The  two  brothers  had 
sprung  squarely  at  each  other,  each  was 


78      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

bitten,  growled,  and  ran  away.  And  how 
they  did  run  !  It  is  not  often,  you  know, 
that  Skunks  go  faster  than  a  walk,  but 
when  they  are  really  scared  they  move 
very,  very  swiftly. 

Mrs.  Ovenbird  felt  her  nest  roof  crush 
down  upon  her  for  a  minute  as  two  peo- 
ple rolled  and  growled  outside.  Then 
she  heard  them  running  away  in  different 
directions  and  knew  that  she  was  safe,  for 
a  time  at  least.  In  the  morning  she  re- 
paired her  nest  and  told  her  bird  friends 
about  it.  They  advised  her  to  take  her 
children  away  as  soon  as  possible  after 
they  were  hatched.  "  If  the  Skunks  have 
found  your  nest,"  they  said,  "you  may 
have  another  call  from  them." 

When  the  Black-tailed  Skunk  came 
stealing  home  in  the  first  faint  light  just 
before  sunrise,  he  found  the  Spotted 
Skunk  telling  the  rest  of  the  family  how- 
some  horrible  great  fierce  beast  had 
pounced  upon  him  in  the  darkness  and 


Skunks  and  Ovenbird's  Nests       79 

bitten  him  on  the  shoulder.  "It  was  so 
dark,"  said  he,  "  that  I  could  n't  see  him  at 
all,  but  I  am  sure  it  must  have  been  a  Bear." 

They  turned  to  tell  the  Black-tailed 
Skunk  about  his  brother's  misfortune,  and 
saw  that  he  limped  badly.  "  Did  the 
Bear  catch  you,  too  ?  "  they  cried. 

"  Yes,"  answered  he.  "  It  must  have 
been  a  Bear.  It  was  so  big  and  strong 
and  fierce.  But  I  bit  him,  too.  I  would  n't 
have  run  away  from  him,  only  he  was  so 
much  bigger  than  I." 

"  That  was  just  the  way  with  me,"  said 
the  Spotted  Skunk.  "  I  would  n't  have 
run  if  he  had  n't  been  so  big." 

"  You  should  have  thrown  liquid  on 
him,"  said  their  father.  "  Then  he  would 
have  been  the  one  to  run." 

The  brothers  hung  their  heads.  "  We 
never  thought,"  they  cried.  "  We  think 
it  must  have  been  because  we  were  so 
surprised  and  did  n't  see  him  coming." 

"  Well,"  said  their   father  sternly,    "  I 


8o      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

suppose  one  must  be  patient  with  children, 
but  such  unskunklike  behavior  makes 
me  very  much  ashamed  of  you  both." 
Then  the  two  bitten  brothers  went  to 
bed  in  disgrace,  although  their  mother 
was  sorry  for  them  and  loved  them,  as 
mothers  will  do,  even  when  their  children 
are  naughty  or  cowardly. 

One  night,  some  time  later,  these  two 
brothers  happened  to  meet  down  by  the 
fern  bank.  It  was  bright  moonlight  and 
they  stopped  to  visit,  for  both  were  feel- 
ing very  good-natured.  The  Black-tailed 
Skunk  said  :  "  Come  with  me  and  I  '11  show 
you  where  there  is  an  Ovenbird's  nest." 

"  All  right,"  answered  the  Spotted 
Skunk,  "  and  then  I  '11  show  you  one." 

"  I  Ve  just  been  waiting  for  a  bright 
night,"  said  the  Black-tailed  Skunk,  "  be- 
cause I  came  here  once  in  the  dark  and 
had  bad  luck." 

"  It  was  near  here,"  said  the  Spotted 
Skunk,  "  that  I  was  bitten  by  the  Bear." 


Skunks  and  Ovenbird's  Nests        81 

They  stopped  beside  a  tiny  hollow. 
"  There  is  the  nest,"  said  the  Black-tailed 
Skunk,  pointing  with  one  of  his  long 
forefeet. 

"  Why,  that  is  the  one  I  meant,"  ex- 
claimed the  Spotted  Skunk. 

"  I  found  it  first,"  said  the  Black-tailed 
Skunk,  "  and  I  'd  have  eaten  the  eggs 
before  if  that  Bear  had  n't  bitten  me." 

Just  at  that  minute  the  two  Skunks 
had  a  new  idea.  "  We  do  believe,"  cried 
they,  "  that  we  bit  each  other  !  " 

"  We  certainly  did,"  said  the  Spotted 
Skunk. 

"  But  we'  11  never  tell,"  said  the  Black- 
tailed  Skunk. 

"  Now,"  they  added  together,  "  let 's 
eat  everything." 

But  they  did  n't.  In  fact,  they  did  n't 
eat  anything,  for  the  eggs  were  hatched, 
and  the  young  birds  had  left  the  nest 
only  the  day  before. 

6 


THE  LAZY  CUT-WORMS 

\  TOW  that  spring  had  come  and  all  the 
green  things  were  growing,  the  Cut- 
Worms  crawled  out  of  their  winter  sleep- 
ing-places in  the  ground,  and  began  to  eat 
the  tenderest  and  best  things  that  they 
could  find.  They  felt  rested  and  hungry 
after  their  quiet  winter,  for  they  had  slept 
without  awakening  ever  since  the  first 
really  cold  days  of  fall. 

There  were  many  different  kinds  of  Cut- 
Worms,  brothers  and  sisters,  cousins  and 
second  cousins,  so,  of  course,  they  did  not 
all  look  alike.  They  had  hatched  the  sum- 
mer before  from  eggs  laid  by  the  Owlet 
Moths,  their  mothers,  and  had  spent  the 
time  from  then  until  cold  weather  in 
eating  and  sleeping  and  eating  some 
82 


The  Lazy  Cut-Worms  83 

more.  Of  course  they  grew  a  great  deal, 
but  then,  you  know,  one  can  grow  without 
taking  time  especially  for  it.  It  is  well 
that  this  is  so.  If  people  had  to  say,  "  I 
can  do  nothing  else  now.  I  must  sit 
down  and  grow  awhile,"  there  would  not 
be  so  many  large  people  in  the  world  as 
there  are.  They  would  become  so  inter- 
ested in  doing  other  things  that  they 
would  not  take  the  time  to  grow  as  they 
should. 

Now  the  Cut-Worms  were  fine  and  fat 
and  just  as  heedless  as  Cut-WTorms  have 
been  since  the  world  began.  They  had 
never  seen  their  parents,  and  had  hatched 
without  any  one  to  look  after  them.  They 
did  not  look  like  their  parents,  for  they 
were  only  worms  as  yet,  but  they  had 
the  same  habit  of  sleeping  all  day  and  go- 
ing out  at  night,  and  never  thought  of 
eating  breakfast  until  the  sun  had  gone 
down.  They  were  quite  popular  in  un- 
derground society,  and  were  much  liked 


84      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

by  the  Earthworms  and  May  Beetle  larvae, 
who  enjoyed  hearing  stones  of  what  the 
Cut-Worms  saw  above  ground.  The  May 
Beetle  larvae  did  not  go  out  at  all,  be- 
cause they  were  too  young,  and  the  Earth- 
worms never  knew  what  was  going  on 
outside  unless  somebody  told  them.  They 
often  put  their  heads  up  into  the  air,  but 
they  had  no  eyes  and  could  not  see  for 
themselves. 

The  Cut-Worms  were  bold,  saucy,  sel- 
fish, and  wasteful.  They  were  not  good 
children,  although  when  they  tried  they 
could  be  very  entertaining,  and  one  al- 
ways hoped  that  they  would  improve  be- 
fore they  became  Moths.  Sometimes 
they  even  told  the  Earthworms  and  May 
Beetle  larvae  stories  that  were  not  so,  and 
that  shows  what  sort  of  children  they 
were.  It  was  dreadful  to  tell  such  things 
to  people  who  could  never  find  out  the 
difference.  One  Spotted  Cut- Worm  heard 
a  couple  of  Earthworms  talking  about 


The  Lazy  Cut-Worms  85 

Ground  Moles,  and  told  them  that  Ground 
Moles  were  large  birds  with  four  wings 
apiece  and  legs  like  a  Caterpillar's.  They 
did  not  take  pains  to  be  entertaining  be- 
cause they  wanted  to  make  the  under- 
ground people  happy,  but  because  they 
enjoyed  hearing  them  say  :  "  What  bright 
fellows  those  Cut-Worms  are !  Really 
exceedingly  clever  !  "  And  doing  it  for 
that  reason  took  all  the  goodness  out 
of  it. 

One  bright  moonlight  night  the  Cut- 
Worms  awakened  and  crawled  out  on  top 
of  the  ground  to  feed.  They  lived  in  the 
farmer's  vegetable  garden,  so  there  were 
many  things  to  choose  from  :  young  beets 
just  showing  their  red-veined  leaves  above 
their  shining  red  stems ;  turnips  ;  clean- 
looking  onions  holding  their  slender  leaves 
very  stiff  and  straight ;  radishes  with  just 
a  bit  of  their  rosy  roots  peeping  out  of 
the  earth  ;  and  crisp,  pale  green  lettuce, 
crinkled  and  shaking  in  every  passing 


86      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

breeze.  It  was  a  lovely  growing  time, 
and  all  the  vegetables  were  making  the 
most  of  the  fine  nights,  for,  you  know, 
that  is  the  time  when  everything  grows 
best.  Sunshiny  days  are  the  best  for 
coloring  leaves  and  blossoms,  but  the 
time  for  sinking  roots  deeper  and  sending 
shoots  higher  and  unfolding  new  leaves 
is  at  night  in  the  beautiful  stillness. 

Some  Cut-Worms  chose  beets  and  some 
chose  radishes.  Two  or  three  liked  lettuce 
best,  and  a  couple  crawled  off  to  nibble  at 
the  sweet  peas  which  the  farmer's  wife 
had  planted.  They  never  ate  all  of  a 
plant.  Ah,  no  !  And  that  was  one  way 
in  which  they  were  wasteful.  They  nib- 
bled through  the  stalk  where  it  came  out 
of  the  ground,  and  then  the  plant  tumbled 
down  and  withered,  while  the  Cut-Worm 
went  on  to  treat  another  in  the  same 
way. 

"  Well ! "  exclaimed  one  Spotted  Cut- 
Worm,  as  he  crawled  out  from  his  hole. 


The  Lazy  Cut-Worms  87 

"  I  must  have  overslept !  Guess  I  stayed 
up  too  late  this  morning." 

"  You  'd  better  look  out,"  said  one  of 
his  friends,  "  or  the  Ground  Mole  will 
get  you.  He  likes  to  find  nice  fat  little 
Cut-Worms  who  sleep  too  late  in  the 
evening." 

"  Need  n't  tell  me,"  answered  the 
Spotted  Cut-Worm.  "  It's  the  early 
Mole  that  catches  the  Cut-Worm.  I 
don't  know  when  I  have  overslept  my- 
self so.  Have  you  fellows  been  up  ever 
since  sunset?" 

"  Yes,"  they  answered  ;  and  one  saucy 
fellow  added :  "I  got  up  too  early.  I 
awakened  and  felt  hungry,  and  thought 
I'd  just  come  out  for  a  lunch.  I  sup- 
posed the  birds  had  finished  their  supper, 
but  the  first  thing  I  saw  was  a  Robin 
out  hunting.  She  was  not  more  than  the 
length  of  a  bean-pole  from  me,  and  when 
I  saw  her  cock  her  head  on  one  side 
and  look  toward  me,  I  was  sure  she  saw 


88      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

me.  But  she  didn't,  after  all.  Lucky 
for  me  that  I  am  green  and  came  up 
beside  the  lettuce.  I  kept  still  and  she 
took  me  for  a  leaf." 

"  St  !  "  said  somebody  else.  "  There 
comes  the  Ground  Mole."  They  all  kept 
still  while  the  Mole  scampered  to  and 
fro  on  the  dewy  grass  near  them,  going 
faster  than  one  would  think  he  could 
with  such  very,  very  short  legs.  His 
pink  digging  hands  flashed  in  the  moon- 
light, and  his  pink  snout  showed  also, 
but  the  dark,  soft  fur  of  the  rest  of  his 
body  could  hardly  be  seen  against  the 
brown  earth  of  the  garden.  It  may  have 
been  because  he  was  not  hungry,  or  it 
may  have  been  because  his  fur  covered 
over  his  eyes  so,  but  he  went  back  to  his 
underground  run-way  without  having 
caught  a  single  Cut-Worm. 

Then  the  Cut-Worms  felt  very  much 
set  up.  They  crawled  toward  the  hole 
into  his  run-way  and  made  faces  at  it, 


The  Lazy  Cut-Worms  89 

as  though  he  were  standing  in  the  door- 
way. They  called  mean  things  after  him 
and  pretended  to  say  them  very  loudly, 
yet  really  spoke  quite  softly. 

Then  they  began  to  boast  that  they 
were  not  afraid  of  anybody,  and  while 
they  were  boasting  they  ate  and  ate  and 
ate  and  ate.  Here  and  there  the  young 
plants  drooped  and  fell  over,  and  as  soon 
as  one  did  that,  the  Cut-Worm  who  had 
eaten  on  it  crawled  off  to  another. 

"  Guess  the  farmer  will  know  that 
we  've  been  here,"  said  they.  "  We  don't 
care.  He  does  n't  need  all  these  vegeta- 
bles. What  if  he  did  plant  them  ?  Let 
him  plant  some  more  if  he  wants  to. 
What  business  has  he  to  have  so  many, 
anyhow,  if  he  won't  share  with  other 
people  ?  "  You  would  have  thought,  to 
hear  them,  that  they  were  exceedingly 
kind  to  leave  any  vegetables  for  the 
farmer. 

In  among  the  sweet  peas  were  many 


90      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

little  tufts  of  purslane,  and  purslane  is 
very  good  to  eat,  as  anybody  knows  who 
has  tried  it.  But  do  you  think  the  Cut- 
Worms  ate  that  ?  Not  a  bit  of  it.  "We 
can  have  purslane  any  day,"  they  said, 
"  and  now  we  will  eat  sweet  peas." 

One  little  fellow  added  :  "  You  won't 
catch  me  eating  purslane.  It's  a  weed." 
Now,  Cut-Worms  do  eat  weeds,  but  they 
always  seem  to  like  best  those  things 
which  have  been  carefully  planted  and 
tended.  If  the  purslane  had  been  set  in 
straight  rows,  and  the  sweet  peas  had 
just  come  up  of  themselves  everywhere, 
it  is  quite  likely  that  this  young  Cut- 
Worm  would  have  said :  "  You  won't 
catch  me  eating  sweet  peas.  They  are 
weeds." 

As  the  moon  rose  higher  and  higher  in 
the  sky,  the  Cut-Worms  boasted  more 
and  more.  They  said  there  were  no 
Robins  clever  enough  to  find  them,  and 
that  the  Ground  Mole  dared  not  touch 


The  Lazy  Cut- Worms  91 

them  when  they  were  together,  and  that 
it  was  only  when  he  found  one  alone 
underground  that  he  was  brave  enough  to 
do  so.  They  talked  very  loudly  now  and 
bragged  dreadfully,  until  they  noticed 
that  the  moon  was  setting  and  a  faint 
yellow  light  showed  over  the  tree-tops  in 
the  east. 

"  Time  to  go  to  bed  for  the  day,"  called 
the  Spotted  Cut-Worm.  "Where  are 
you  going  to  crawl  in  ?  "  They  had  no 
regular  homes,  you  know,  but  crawled 
into  the  earth  wherever  they  wanted  to 
and  slept  until  the  next  night. 

"  Here  are  some  fine  holes  already 
made,"  said  a  Green  Cut-Worm,  "  and  big 
enough  for  a  Garter  Snake.  They  are 
smooth  and  deep,  and  a  lot  of  us  can 
cuddle  down  into  each.  I  'm  going  into 
one  of  them." 

"  Who  made  those  holes  ? "  asked  the 
Spotted  Cut-Worm  ;  "and  why  are  they 
here?" 


92      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  Oh,  who  cares  who  made  them?" 
answered  the  Green  Cut-Worm.  "Guess 
they  're  ours  if  we  want  to  use  them." 

"  Perhaps  the  farmer  made  them,"  said 
the  Spotted  Cut-Worm,  "  and  if  he  did  I 
don't  want  to  go  into  them." 

"  Oh,  who  's  afraid  of  him  ?  "  cried  the 
other  Cut- Worms..  "  Come  along  !  " 

"  No,"  answered  the  Spotted  Cut-Worm. 
"  I  won't.  I  don't  want  to  and  I  won't 
do  it.  The  hole  I  make  to  sleep  in  will 
not  be  so  large,  nor  will  it  have  such 
smooth  sides,  but  I  '11  know  all  about  it 
and  feel  safe.  Good-morning."  Then  he 
crawled  into  the  earth  and  went  to  sleep. 
The  others  went  into  the  smooth,  deep 
holes  made  by  the  farmer  with  his  hoe 
handle. 

The  next  night  there  was  only  one 
Cut-Worm  in  the  garden,  and  that  was 
the  Spotted  Cut-Worm.  Nobody  has 
ever  seen  the  lazy  ones  who  chose  to  use 
the  smooth,  deep  holes  which  were  ready 


The  Lazy  Cut-Worms  93 

made.  The  Spotted  Cut-Worm  lived 
quite  alone  until  he  was  full-grown,  then 
he  made  a  little  oval  room  for  himself  in 
the  ground  and  slept  in  it  while  he 
changed  into  a  Black  Owlet  Moth. 

After  that  he  flew  away  to  find  a  wife 
and  live  among  her  people.  It  is  said 
that  whenever  he  saw  a  Cut-Worm  work- 
ing at  night,  he  would  flutter  down  beside 
him  and  whisper, — "  The  Cut-Worm  who 
is  too  lazy  to  bore  his  own  sleeping-place 
will  never  live  to  become  an  Owlet  Moth." 


THE    NIGHT   MOTH'S    PARTY 

CROM  the  time  when  she  was  a  tiny 
*•  golden-green  Caterpillar,  Miss  Poly- 
phemus had  wanted  to  go  into  soci- 
ety. She  began  life  on  a  maple  leaf 
with  a  few  brothers  and  sisters,  who 
hatched  at  the  same  time  from  a  cluster 
of  flattened  eggs  which  their  mother  had 
laid  there  ten  days  before.  The  first 
thing  she  remembered  was  the  light  and 
color  and  sound  when  she  broke  the  shell 
open  that  May  morning.  The  first  thing 
she  did  was  to  eat  the  shell  out  of  which 
she  had  just  crawled.  Then  she  got  ac- 
quainted with  her  brothers  and  sisters, 
many  of  whom  had  also  eaten  their  egg- 
shells, although  two  had  begun  at  once 
on  maple  leaves.  It  was  well  that  she 

94 


The  Night  Moth's  Party  95 

took  time  for  this  now,  for  the  family 
were  soon  scattered  and  several  of  her 
sisters  she  never  saw  again. 

She  found  it  a  very  lovely  world  to 
live  in.  There  was  so  much  to  eat.  Yes, 
and  there  were  so  many  kinds  of  leaves 
that  she  liked, — oak,  hickory,  apple,  maple, 
elm,  and  several  others.  Sometimes  she 
wished  that  she  had  three  mouths  instead 
of  one.  In  those  days  she  had  few  visi- 
tors. It  is  true  that  other  Caterpillars 
happened  along  once  in  a  while,  but  they 
were  almost  as  hungry  as  she,  and  they 
could  n't  speak  without  stopping  eating. 
They  could,  of  course,  if  they  talked  with 
their  mouths  full,  but  she  had  too  good 
manners  for  that,  and,  besides,  she  said 
that  if  she  did,  she  could  n't  enjoy  her 
food  so  much. 

You  must  not  think  that  it  was  wrong 
in  her  to  care  so  much  about  eating. 
She  was  only  doing  what  is  expected  of  a 
Polyphemus  Caterpillar,  and  you  would 


96     Among  the  Night-Time  People 

have  to  do  the  same  if  you  were  a  Poly- 
phemus Caterpillar.  When  she  was  ten 
days  old  she  had  to  weigh  ten  times  as 
much  as  she  did  the  morning  that  she 
was  hatched.  When  she  was  twenty 
days  old  she  had  to  weigh  sixty  times  as 
much  ;  when  she  was  a  month  old  she 
had  to  weigh  six  hundred  and  twenty 
times  as  much  ;  and  when  she  was  fifty 
days  old  she  had  to  weigh  four  thousand 
times  as  much  as  she  did  at  hatching. 
Every  bit  of  this  flesh  was  made  of  the 
food  she  ate.  That  is  why  eating  was  so 
important,  you  know,  and  if  she  had 
chosen  to  eat  the  wrong  kind  of  leaves 
just  because  they  tasted  good,  she  would 
never  have  become  such  a  fine  great 
Caterpillar  as  she  did.  She  might  better 
not  eat  anything  than  to  eat  the  wrong 
sort,  and  she  knew  it. 

Still,  she  often  wished  that  she  had 
more  time  for  visiting,  and  thought  that 
she  would  be  very  gay  next  year,  when 


The  Night  Moth's  Party  97 

she  got  her  wings.  "  I  '11  make  up  for  it 
then,"  she  said  to  herself,  "  when  my 
growing  is  done  and  I  have  time  for 
play."  Then  she  ate  some  more  good, 
plain  food,  for  she  knew  that  there  would 
be  no  happy  Moth-times  for  Caterpillars 
who  did  not  eat  as  they  should. 

She  had  five  vacations  of  about  a  day 
each  when  she  ate  nothing  at  all.  These 
were  the  times  when  she  changed  her 
skin,  crawling  out  of  the  tight  old  one 
and  appearing  as  fresh  and  clean  as  pos- 
sible in  the  new  one  which  was  ready 
underneath.  After  her  last  change  she 
was  ready  to  plan  her  cocoon,  and  she 
was  a  most  beautiful  Caterpillar.  She  was 
about  as  long  as  a  small  cherry  leaf, 
and  as  plump  as  a  Caterpillar  can  be. 
She  was  light  green,  with  seven  slanting 
yellow  lines  on  each  side  of  her  body,  and 
a  purplish-brown  V-shaped  mark  on  the 
back  part  of  each  side.  There  were 
many  little  orange-colored  bunches  on 

7 


98      Among  the  Night-Time  People 

her  body,  which  showed  beautiful  gleam- 
ing lights  when  she  moved.  Growing 
out  of  these  bunches  were  tiny  tufts  of 
bristles. 

She  had  three  pairs  of  real  legs  and 
several  pairs  of  make-believe  ones.  Her 
real  legs  were  on  the  front  part  of  her 
body  and  were  slender.  These  she  ex- 
pected to  keep  always.  The  make-believe 
ones  were  called  pro-legs.  They  grew 
farther  back  and  were  fat,  awkward,  joint- 
less  things  which  she  would  not  need 
after  her  cocoon  was  spun.  But  for 
them,  she  would  have  had  to  drag  the 
back  part  of  her  body  around  like  a 
Snake.  With  them,  the  back  part  of  her 
body  could  walk  as  well  as  the  front,  al- 
though not  quite  so  fast.  She  always 
took  a  few  steps  with  her  real  legs  and 
then  waited  for  her  pro-legs  to  catch 
up. 

As  the  weather  grew  colder  the  Poly- 
phemus Caterpillar  hunted  around  on  the 


The  Night  Moth's  Party  99 

ground  for  a  good  place  for  her  cocoon. 
She  found  an  excellent  twig  lying  among 
the  dead  leaves,  and  decided  to  fasten  to 
that.  Then  began  her  hardest  work,  spin- 
ning a  fluffy  mass  of  gray-white  silk  which 
clung  to  the  twig  and  to  one  of  the  dry 
leaves  and  was  almost  exactly  the  color  of 
the  leaf.  Other  Caterpillars  came  along 
and  stopped  to  visit,  for  they  did  not  have 
to  eat  at  cocoon-spinning  time. 

"  Better  fasten  your  cocoon  to  a  tree," 
said  a  pale  bluish-green  Promethea  Cater- 
pillar. "  Put  it  inside  a  curled  leaf,  like 
mine,  and  wind  silk  around  the  stem  to 
strengthen  it.  Then  you  can  swing  every 
time  the  wind  blows,  and  the  silk  will 
keep  the  leaf  from  wearing  out." 

"  But  I  don  't  want  to  swing,"  answered 
the  Polyphemus  Caterpillar."  "  I  'd 
rather  lie  still  and  think  about  things." 

"  Fasten  to  the  twig  of  a  tree,"  advised 
a  pale  green  Cecropia  Caterpillar  with 
red,  yellow,  and  blue  bunches.  "  Then 


ioo   Among  the  Night-Time  People 

the  wind  just  moves  you  a  little.  Fasten 
it  to  a  twig  and  taper  it  off  nicely  at  each 
end,  and  then 

"  Yes,"  said  the  Polyphemus  Caterpillar, 
"and  then  the  Blue-Jays  and  Chickadees 
will  poke  wheat  or  corn  or  beechnuts  into 
the  upper  end  of  it.  I  don't  care  to  turn 
my  sleeping  room  into  a  corn-crib." 

Just  here  some  other  Polyphemus  Cat- 
erpillars came  along  and  agreed  with  their 
relative.  "  Go  ahead  with  your  tree 
homes,"  said  they.  "  We  know  what  we 
want,  and  we  '11  see  next  summer  who 
knew  best." 

The  Polyphemus  cocoons  were  spun  on 
the  ground  where  the  dead  leaves  had 
blown  in  between  some  stones,  and  no 
wandering  Cows  or  Sheep  would  be 
likely  to  step  on  them.  First  a  mass  of 
coarse  silk  which  it  took  half  a  day  to 
make,  then  an  inside  coating  of  a  kind  of 
varnish,  then  as  much  silk  as  a  Caterpillar 
could  spin  in  four  or  five  days,  next  an- 


The  Night  Moth's  Party          101 

other  inside  varnishing,  and  the  cocoons 
were  done.  As  the  Polyphemus  Cater- 
pillars snuggled  down  for  the  long  winter's 
sleep,  each  said  to  himself  something  like 
this  :  "  Those  poor  Caterpillars  in  the 
trees  !  How  cold  they  will  be  !  I  hope 
they  may  come  out  all  right  in  the  spring, 
but  I  doubt  it  very  much." 

And  when  the  Cecropia  and  Promethea 
Caterpillars  dozed  off  for  the  winter,  they 
said:  "What  a  pity  that  those  Polyphemus 
Caterpillars  would  lie  around  on  the 
ground.  Well,  we  advised  them  what  to 
do,  so  it  is  n  't  our  fault." 

They  all  had  a  lovely  winter,  and  swung 
or  swayed  or  lay  still,  just  as  they  had 
chosen  to  do.  Early  in  the  spring,  the 
farmer's  wife  and  little  girl  came  out  to  find 
wild  flowers,  and  scraped  the  leaves  away 
from  among  the  stones.  Out  rolled  the 
cocoon  that  the  first  Polyphemus  Cater- 
pillar had  spun  and  the  farmer's  wife 
picked  it  up  and  carried  it  off.  She 


IO2    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

might  have  found  more  cocoons  if  the 
little  girl  had  not  called  her  away. 

This  was  how  it  happened  that  one  May 
morning  a  little  girl  stood  by  the  sitting- 
room  window  in  the  white  farmhouse  and 
watched  Miss  Polyphemus  crawl  slowly  out 
of  her  cocoon.  A  few  days  before  a  sour, 
milky-looking  stuff  had  begun  to  trickle 
into  the  lower  end  of  the  cocoon,  soften- 
ing the  hard  varnish  and  the  soft  silken 
threads  until  a  tiny  doorway  was  opened. 
Now  all  was  ready  and  Miss  Polyphemus 
pushed  out.  She  was  very  wet  and  weak 
and  forlorn.  "  Oh,"  said  she  to  herself, 
"  it  is  more  fun  to  be  a  new  Caterpillar 
than  it  is  to  be  a  new  Moth.  I  Ve  only 
six  legs  left,  and  it  will  be  very  hard 
worrying  along  on  these.  I  shall  have  to 
give  up  walking." 

It  was  discouraging.  You  can  see  how 
it  would  be.  She  had  been  used  to  hav- 
ing so  many  legs,  and  had  looked  forward 
all  the  summer  before  to  the  time  when 


The  Nignt  Moth's  Party          103 

she  should  float  lightly  through  the  air 
and  sip  honey  from  flowers.  She  had 
dreamed  of  it  all  winter.  And  now  here 
she  was — wet  and  weak,  with  only  six  legs 
left,  and  four  very  small  and  crumpled 
wings.  Her  body  was  so  big  and  fat 
that  she  could  not  hold  it  up  from  the 
window-sill.  She  wanted  to  cry — it  was 
all  so  sad  and  disappointing.  She  would 
have  done  so,  had  she  not  remembered 
how  very  unbecoming  it  is  to  cry.  When 
she  remembered  that,  she  decided  to  take 
a  nap  instead,  and  that  was  a  most  sensi- 
ble thing  to  do,  for  crying  always  makes 
matters  worse,  while  sleeping  makes  them 
better. 

When  she  awakened  she  felt  much 
stronger  and  more  cheerful.  She  was 
drier  and  her  body  felt  lighter.  This 
was  because  the  fluids  from  it  were  being 
pumped  into  her  wings.  That  was  mak- 
ing them  grow,  and  the  beautiful  colors 
began  to  show  more  brightly  on  them. 


104    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  I  wonder,"  she  said  to  herself,  "  if 
Moths  always  feel  so  badly  when  they 
first  come  out  ?  " 

If  she  had  but  known  it,  there  were 
at  that  very  time  hundreds  of  Moths  as 
helpless  as  she,  clinging  to  branches, 
leaves,  and  stones  all  through  the  forest. 
There  were  many  Polyphemus  Moths 
just  out,  for  in  their  family  it  is  the  cus- 
tom for  all  to  leave  their  cocoons  at  just 
about  such  a  time  in  the  morning.  Per- 
haps she  would  have  felt  more  patient 
if  she  had  known  this,  for  it  does  seem  to 
make  hard  times  easier  to  bear  when  one 
knows  that  everybody  else  has  hard  times 
also.  Of  course  other  people  always  are 
having  trouble,  but  she  was  young  and 
really  believed  for  a  time  that  she  was 
the  only  uncomfortable  Moth  in  the 
world. 

All  day  long  her  wings  were  stretch- 
ing and  growing  smooth.  When  it  grew 
dark  she  was  nearly  ready  to  fly.  Then 


The  Night  Moth's  Party          105 

the  farmer's  wife  lifted  her  gently  by  the 
wings  and  put  her  on  the  inside  of  the 
wire  window-screen.  When  the  lights  in 
the  house  were  all  put  out,  the  moon- 
beams shone  in  on  Miss  Polyphemus 
and  showed  her  beautiful  sand-colored 
body  and  wings  with  the  dark  border  on 
the  front  pair  and  the  lighter  border 
on  the  back  pair. 

On  the  back  ones  were  dark  eye-spots 
with  clear  places  in  the  middle,  through 
which  one  could  see  quite  clearly. 

"  I  would  like  to  fly,"  sighed  Miss  Poly- 
phemus, "  and  I  believe  I  could  if  it  were 
not  for  this  horrid  screen."  She  did  not 
know  that  the  farmer's  wife  had  put  her 
there  to  keep  her  safe  from  night  birds 
until  she  was  quite  strong. 

The  wind  blew  in,  sweet  with  the  scent 
of  wild  cherry  and  shad-tree  blossoms, 
and  poor  Miss  Polyphemus  looked  over 
toward  the  forest  where  she  had  lived 
when  she  was  a  Caterpillar,  and  wished 


io6    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

herself  safely  there.  "  Much  good  it  does 
me  to  have  wings  when  I  cannot  use 
them,"  said  she.  "  I  want  something  to 
eat.  There  is  no  honey  to  be  sucked  out 
of  wire  netting.  I  wish  I  were  a  happy 
Caterpillar  again,  eating  leaves  on  the 
trees."  She  was  not  the  first  Moth  who 
has  wished  herself  a  Caterpillar,  but  she 
soon  changed  her  mind. 

There  fluttered  toward  her  another 
Polyphemus  Moth,  a  handsome  fellow, 
marked  exactly  as  she  was,  only  with 
darker  coloring.  His  body  was  more 
slender,  and  his  feelers  were  very  beauti- 
ful and  feathery.  She  was  fat  and  had 
slender  feelers. 

"  Ah  !  "  said  he.  "  I  thought  I  should 
find  you  soon." 

"Indeed?"  she  replied.  "I  wonder 
what  made  you  think  that  ?  " 

"  My  feelers,  of  course,"  said  he.  "  They 
always  tell  me  where  to  find  my  friends. 
You  know  how  that  is  yourself." 


The  Night  Moth's  Party          107 

"  I  ?  "  said  she,  as  she  changed  her  posi- 
tion a  little.  "  I  am  just  from  my  cocoon. 
This  was  my  coming-out  day." 

"  And  so  you  have  not  met  any  one 
yet  ?  "  he  asked.  "  Ah,  this  is  a  strange 
world — a  very  strange  world.  I  would 
advise  you  to  be  very  careful  with  whom 
you  make  friends.  There  are  so  many 
bad  Moths,  you  know." 

"  Good-evening,"  said  a  third  voice  near 
them,  and  another  Polyphemus  Moth  with 
feathery  feelers  alighted  on  the  screen. 
'He  smiled  sweetly  at  Miss  Polyphemus 
and  scowled  fiercely  at  the  other  Moth. 
It  would  have  ended  in  a  quarrel  right 
then  and  there,  if  a  fourth  Moth  had  not 
come  at  that  minute.  One  after  another 
came,  until  there  were  nine  handsome  fel- 
lows on  the  outside  and  Miss  Polyphemus 
on  the  inside  of  the  screen  trying  to  enter- 
tain them  all  and  keep  them  from  quarrel- 
ling. It  made  her  very  proud  to  think  so 
many  were  at  her  coming-out  party.  Still, 


io8    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

she  would  have  enjoyed  it  better,  she 
thought,  if  some  whom  she  had  known  as 
Caterpillars  could  be  there  to  see  how 
much  attention  she  was  having  paid  to  her. 
There  was  one  Caterpillar  whom  she  had 
never  liked.  She  only  wished  that  she 
could  see  her  now. 

Still,  society  tires  one  very  much,  and 
it  was  hard  to  keep  her  guests  from  quar- 
relling. When  she  got  to  talking  with  one 
about  maple-trees,  another  was  sure  to 
come  up  and  say  that  he  had  always  pre- 
ferred beech  when  he  was  a  Caterpillar. 
And  the  two  outside  would  glare  at  each 
other  while  she  hastily  thought  of  some- 
thing else  to  say. 

At  last  those  outside  got  to  fighting. 
There  was  only  one,  the  handsomest  of 
all,  who  said  he  thought  too  much  of  his 
feelers  to  fight  anybody.  "  Supposing  I 
should  fight  and  break  them  off,"  said  he. 
"  I  couldn't  smell  a  thing  for  the  rest  of 
my  life."  He  was  very  sensible,  and  really 


THEY  LIVED  IN  THE  FOREST  AFTER  THAT. 


Page  109 


The  Night  Moth's  Party          109 

the  eight  other  fellows  were  fighting  on 
account  of  Miss  Polyphemus,  for  when- 
ever they  thought  she  liked  one  best  they 
began  to  bump  up  against  him. 

Toward  morning  the  farmer's  wife 
awakened  and  looked  at  Miss  Polyphemus. 
When  she  saw  that  she  was  strong  enough 
to  fly,  she  opened  the  screen  and  let  her 
go.  By  that  time  three  of  those  with 
feathery  feelers  were  dead,  three  were 
broken-winged  and  clinging  helplessly  to 
the  screen,  and  two  were  so  busy  fighting 
that  they  did  n't  see  Miss  Polyphemus  go. 
The  handsome  great  fellow  who  did  not 
believe  in  fighting  went  with  her,  and  they 
lived  in  the  forest  after  that.  But  she 
never  cared  for  society  again. 


THE    LONELY  OLD   BACHELOR 
MUSKRAT 


OEYOND  the  forest  and  beside  the 
*-^  river  lay  the  marsh  where  the  Musk- 
rats  lived.  This  was  the  same  marsh 
to  which  the  young  Frog  had  taken 
some  of  the  meadow  people's  children 
when  they  were  tired  of  staying  at  home 
and  wanted  to  travel.  When  they  went 
with  him,  you  remember,  they  were  gay 
and  happy,  the  sun  was  shining,  and  the 
way  did  not  seem  long.  When  they 
came  back  they  were  cold  and  wet  and 
tired,  and  thought  it  very  far  indeed. 
One  could  never  get  them  to  say  much 
about  it. 

Some  people  like  what  others  do  not, 
and    one's    opinion    of    a    marsh    must 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  1 1 1 

always  depend  on  whether  he  is  a  Grass- 
hopper or  a  Frog.  But  whether  people 
cared  to  live  there  or  not,  the  marsh  had 
always  been  a  pleasant  place  to  see. 
In  the  spring  the  tall  tamaracks  along 
the  edge  put  on  their  new  dresses  of 
soft,  needle-shaped  green  leaves,  the 
marsh-marigolds  held  their  bright  faces 
up  to  the  sun,  and  hundreds  of  happy 
little  people  darted  in  and  out  of  the 
tussocks  of  coarse  grass.  There  was  a 
warm,  wet,  earthy  smell  in  the  air,  and 
near  the  pussy-willows  there  was  also  a 
faint  bitterness. 

Then  the  Marsh  Hens  made  their 
nests,  and  the  Sand-pipers  ran  mincingly 
along  by  the  quiet  pools. 

In  summer  time  the  beautiful  moccasin 
flowers  grew  in  family  groups,  and  over 
in  the  higher,  dryer  part  were  masses 
of  white  boneset,  tall  spikes  of  creamy 
foxglove,  and  slender,  purple  vervain. 
In  the  fall  the  cat-tails  stood  stiffly 


H2    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

among  their  yellow  leaves,  and  the  Red- 
winged  Blackbirds  and  tLe  Bobolinks 
perched  upon  them  to  plan  their  journey 
to  the  south. 

Even  when  the  birds  were  gone  and 
the  cat-tails  were  ragged  and  worn — even 
then,  the  marsh  was  an  interesting  place. 
Soft  snow  clung  to  the  brown  seed  clus- 
ters of  boneset  and  filled  the  open  silvery- 
gray  pods  of  the  milkweed.  In  among 
the  brown  tussocks  of  grass  ran  the 
dainty  footprints  of  Mice  and  Minks, 
and  here  and  there  rose  the  cone-shaped 
winter  homes  of  the  Muskrats. 

The  Muskrats  were  the  largest  people 
there,  and  lived  in  the  finest  homes.  It 
is  true  that  if  a  Mink  and  a  Muskrat 
fought,  the  Mink  was  likely  to  get  the 
better  of  the  Muskrat,  but  people  never 
spoke  of  this,  although  everybody  knew 
that  it  was  so.  The  Muskrats  were  too 
proud  to  do  so,  the  Minks  were  too  wise 
to,  and  the  smaller  people  who  lived  near 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  113 

did  not  want  to  offend  the  Muskrats  by 
mentioning  it.  It  is  said  that  an  impu- 
dent young  Mouse  did  say  something 
about  it  once  when  the  Muskrats  could 
overhear  him  and  that  not  one  of  them 
ever  spoke  to  him  again.  The  next  time 
he  said  "  Good-evening "  to  a  Muskrat, 
the  Muskrat  just  looked  at  him  as  though 
he  did  n't  see  him  or  as  though  he  had 
been  a  stick  or  a  stone  or  something  else 
uneatable  and  uninteresting. 

The  Muskrats  were  very  popular,  for 
they  were  kind  neighbors  and  never  stole 
their  food  from  others.  That  was  why 
nobody  was  jealous  of  them,  although 
they  were  so  fat  and  happy.  Their  chil- 
dren usually  turned  out  very  well,  even 
if  they  were  not  at  all  strictly  brought  up. 
You  know  when  a  father  and  mother 
have  to  feed  and  care  for  fifteen  or  so 
children  each  summer,  there  is  not  much 
time  for  teaching  them  to  say  "please" 
and  "  thank  you "  and  "  pardon  me." 


ii4    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Sometimes  these  young  Muskrats  did 
snatch  and  quarrel,  as  on  that  night  when 
fifteen  of  them  went  to  visit  their  old 
home  and  all  wanted  to  go  in  first.  You 
may  recall  how,  on  that  dreadful  night, 
their  father  had  to  spank  them  with  his 
scaly  tail  and  their  mother  sent  them  to 
bed.  They  always  remembered  it,  and 
you  may  be  very  sure  their  parents  did. 
It  makes  parents  feel  dreadfully  when 
their  children  quarrel,  and  it  is  very  wear- 
ing to  have  to  spank  fifteen  at  once, 
particularly  when  one  has  to  use  his  tail 
with  which  to  do  it. 

There  was  one  old  Bachelor  Muskrat 
who  had  always  lived  for  himself,  and  had 
his  own  way  more  than  was  good  for  him. 
If  he  had  married,  it  would  not  have  been 
so,  and  he  would  have  grown  used  to 
giving  up  to  somebody  else.  He  was  a 
fine-looking  fellow  with  soft,  short,  red- 
dish-brown fur,  which  shaded  almost  to 
black  on  his  back,  and  to  a  light  gray  un- 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  115 

derneath.  There  were  very  few  hairs  on 
his  long,  flat,  scaly  tail,  and  most  of  these 
were  in  two  fringes,  one  down  the  middle 
of  the  upper  side,  and  the  other  down  the 
middle  of  the  lower  side.  His  tiny  ears 
hardly  showed  above  the  fur  on  his  head, 
and  he  was  so  fat  that  he  really  seemed  to 
have  no  neck  at  all.  To  look  at  his  feet 
you  would  hardly  think  he  could  swim, 
for  the  webs  between  his  toes  were  very, 
very  small  and  his  feet  were  not  large. 

He  was  like  all  other  Muskrats  in  using 
a  great  deal  of  perfume,  and  it  was  not 
a  pleasant  kind,  being  so  strong  and 
musky.  He  thought  it  quite  right,  and 
it  was  better  so,  for  he  could  n't  help 
wearing  it,  and  you  can  just  imagine  how 
distressing  it  would  be  to  see  a  Muskrat 
going  around  with  his  nose  turned  up  and 
all  the  time  finding  fault  with  his  own 
perfume. 

Nobody  could  remember  the  time  when 
there  had  been  no  Muskrats  in  the  marsh. 


n6    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

The  Ground  Hog  who  lived  near  the  edge 
of  the  forest  said  that  his  grandfather 
had  often  spoken  of  seeing  them  at  play 
in  the  moonlight ;  and  there  was  an  old 
Rattlesnake  who  had  been  married  several 
times  and  wore  fourteen  joints  in  his  rat- 
tle, who  said  that  he  remembered  see- 
ing Muskrats  there  before  he  cast  his  first 
skin.  And  it  was  not  strange  that,  after 
their  people  had  lived  there  so  long,  the 
Muskrats  should  be  fond  of  the  marsh. 

One  day  in  midsummer  the  farmer  and 
his  men  came  to  the  marsh  with  spades 
and  grub-hoes  and  measuring  lines.  All 
of  them  had  on  high  rubber  boots,  and 
they  tramped  around  and  measured  and 
talked,  and  rooted  up  a  few  huckleberry 
bushes,  and  drove  a  good  many  stakes  into 
the  soft  and  spongy  ground.  Then  the 
dinner-bell  at  the  farmhouse  rang  and, 
they  went  away.  It  was  a  dull,  cloudy  day 
and  a  few  of  the  Muskrats  were  out.  If 
it  had  been  sunshiny  they  would  have 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  117 

stayed  in  their  burrows.  They  paddled 
over  to  where  the  stakes  were,  and 
smelled  of  them  and  gnawed  at  them, 
and  wondered  why  the  men  had  put 
them  there. 

"  I  know,"  said  one  young  Muskrat, 
who  had  married  and  set  up  a  home  of 
his  own  that  spring.  "  I  know  why  they 
put  these  stakes  in." 

"  Oh,  do  listen  !  "  cried  the  young  Musk- 
rat's  wife.  "He  knows  and  will  tell  us 
all  about  it." 

"  Nobody  ever  told  me  this,"  said  the 
young  husband.  "  I  thought  it  out  my- 
self. The  Ground  Hog  once  said  that 
they  put  small  pieces  of  potato  into  the 
ground  to  grow  into  whole  big  ones,  and 
they  have  done  the  same  sort  of  thing 
here.  You  see,  the  farmer  wanted  a 
fence,  and  so  he  stuck  down  these  stakes, 
and  before  winter  he  will  have  a  fence 
well  grown." 

"Humph!"   said  the   Bachelor   Musk- 


n8    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

rat.  It  seemed  as  though  he  had  meant 
to  say  more,  but  the  young  wife  looked  at 
him  with  such  a  frown  on  her  furry  fore- 
head that  he  shut  his  mouth  as  tightly  as 
he  could  (he  never  could  quite  close  it) 
and  said  nothing  else. 

"  Do  you  mean  to  tell  me,"  said  one 
who  had  just  sent  five  children  out  of 
her  burrow  to  make  room  for  another  lot 
of  babies,  "  that  they  will  grow  a  fence 
here  where  it  is  so  wet  ?  Fences  grow  on 
high  land." 

"  That  is  what  I  said,"  answered  the 
young  husband,  slapping  his  tail  on  the 
water  to  make  himself  seem  more 
important. 

"Well,"  said  the  anxious  mother,  "if 
they  go  to  growing  fences  and  such 
things  around  here  I  shall  move.  Every 
one  of  my  children  will  want  to  play 
around  it,  and  as  like  as  not  will  eat  its 
roots  and  get  sick." 

Then  the  men  came  back  and  all  the 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  119 

Muskrats  ran  toward  their  burrows,  dived 
into  the  water  to  reach  the  doors  of 
them,  and  then  crawled  up  the  long  hall- 
ways that  they  had  dug  out  of  the  bank 
until  they  got  to  the  large  rooms  where 
they  spent  most  of  their  days  and  kept 
their  babies. 

That  night  the  young  husband  was  the 
first  Muskrat  to  come  out,  and  he  went 
at  once  to  the  line  of  stakes.  He  had 
been  lying  awake  and  thinking  while  his 
wife  was  asleep,  and  he  was  afraid  he 
had  talked  too  much.  He  found  that 
the  stakes  had  not  grown  any,  and  that 
the  men  had  begun  to  dig  a  deep  ditch 
beside  them.  He  was  afraid  that  his 
neighbors  would  point  their  paws  at  him 
and  ask  how  the  fence  was  growing,  and 
he  was  not  brave  enough  to  meet  them 
and  say  that  he  had  been  mistaken.  He 
went  down  the  river  bank  and  fed  alone  all 
night,  while  his  wife  and  neighbors  were 
grubbing  and  splashing  around  in  the 


I2O    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

marsh  or  swimming  in  the  river  near  their 
homes.  The  young  Muskrats  were  roll- 
ing and  tumbling  in  the  moonlight  and 
looking  like  furry  brown  balls.  After  it 
began  to  grow  light,  he  sneaked  back  to 
his  burrow. 

Every  day  the  men  came  in  their  high 
rubber  boots  to  work,  and  every  day 
there  were  more  ditches  and  the  marsh 
was  drier.  By  the  time  that  the  flowers 
had  all  ripened  their  seeds  and  the  forest 
trees  were  bare,  the  marsh  was  changed 
to  dry  ground,  and  the  Muskrats  could 
find  no  water  there  to  splash  in.  One 
night,  and  it  was  a  very,  very  dark  one, 
they  came  together  to  talk  about  winter. 

"  It  is  time  to  begin  our  cold-weather 
houses,"  said  one  old  Muskrat.  "  I  have 
never  started  so  soon,  but  we  are  to  have 
an  early  winter." 

"Yes,  and  a  long  one,  too,"  added  his 
wife,  who  said  that  Mr.  Muskrat  never 
told  things  quite  strongly  enough. 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  121 

"  It  will  be  cold,"  said  another  Musk- 
rat,  "and  we  shall  need  to  build  thick 
walls." 

"  Why  ?"  asked  a  little  Muskrat. 

"  Sh  ! "  said  his  mother. 

"  The  question  is,"  said  the  old  Musk- 
rat  who  had  first  spoken,  "where  we  shall 
build." 

"  Why  ? "  asked  the  little  Muskrat, 
pulling  at  his  mother's  tail. 

"  Sh-h  !  "  said  his  mother. 

"  There  is  no  water  here  except  in  the 
ditches,"  said  the  oldest  Muskrat,  "and 
of  course  we  would  not  build  beside 
them." 

"Why  not?"  asked  the  little  Muskrat. 
And  this  time  he  actually  poked  his 
mother  in  the  side. 

"  Sh-h-h  ! "  said  she.  "  How  many  times 
must  I  speak  to  you  ?  Don't  you  know 
that  young  Muskrats  should  be  seen  and 
not  heard  ?  " 

"  But  I  can't  be  seen,"  he  whimpered. 


122    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  It  is  so  dark  that  I  can't  be  seen,  and 
you  Ve  just  got  to  hear  me." 

Of  course,  after  he  had  spoken  in  that 
way  to  his  mother  and  interrupted  all  the 
others  by  his  naughtiness,  he  had  to  be 
punished,  so  his  mother  sent  him  to  bed. 
That  is  very  hard  for  young  Muskrats, 
for  the  night,  you  know,  is  the  time  when 
they  have  the  most  fun. 

The  older  ones  talked  and  talked  about 
what  they  should  do.  They  knew,  as 
they  always  do  know,  just  what  sort  of 
winter  they  were  to  have,  and  that  they 
must  begin  to  build  at  once.  Some  years 
they  had  waited  until  a  whole  month 
later,  but  that  was  because  they  expected 
a  late  and  mild  winter.  At  last  the  old- 
est Muskrat  decided  for  them.  "  We 
will  move  to-morrow  night,"  said  he. 
"  We  will  go  to  the  swamp  on  the  other 
side  of  the  forest  and  build  our  winter 
homes  there." 

All  the  Muskrats  felt  sad  about  going, 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  123 

and  for  a  minute  it  was  so  still  that  you 
might  almost  have  heard  a  milkweed 
seed  break  loose  from  the  pod  and  float 
away.  Then  a  gruff  voice  broke  the 
silence.  "  I  will  not  go,"  it  said.  "  I 
was  born  here  and  I  will  live  here.  I 
never  have  left  this  marsh  and  I  never 
will  leave  it." 

They  could  not  see  who  was  speaking, 
but  they  knew  it  was  the  Bachelor.  The 
oldest  Muskrat  said  afterward  that  he 
was  so  surprised  you  could  have  knocked 
him  over  with  a  blade  of  grass.  Of 
course,  you  could  n't  have  done  it,  be- 
cause he  was  so  fat  and  heavy,  but  that 
is  what  he  said,  and  it  shows  just  how 
he  felt. 

The  other  Muskrats  talked  and  talked 
and  talked  with  him,  but  it  made  no 
difference.  His  brothers  told  him  it  was 
perfectly  absurd  for  him  to  stay,  that 
people  would  think  it  queer,  and  that  he 
ought  to  go  with  the  rest  of  his  relatives. 


124   Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Yet  it  made  no  difference.  "  You  should 
stay,"  he  would  reply.  "  Our  family  have 
always  lived  here." 

When  the  Muskrat  mothers  told  him 
how  lonely  he  would  be,  and  how  he 
would  miss  seeing  the  dear  little  ones 
frolic  in  the  moonlight,  he  blinked  and 
said  :  "  Well,  I  shall  just  have  to  stand 
it."  Then  he  sighed,  and  they  went  away 
saying  to  each  other  what  a  tender  heart 
he  had  and  what  a  pity  it  was  that  he  had 
never  married.  One  of  them  spoke  as 
though  he  had  been  in  love  with  her  some 
years  before,  but  the  others  had  known 
nothing  about  it. 

The  Muskrat  fathers  told  him  that  he 
would  have  no  one  to  help  him  if  a  Mink 
should  pick  a  quarrel  with  him.  "  I  can 
take  care  of  myself  then,"  said  he,  and 
showed  his  strong  gnawing  teeth  in  a 
very  fierce  way. 

It  was  only  when  the  dainty  young 
Muskrat  daughters  talked  to  him  that  he 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  125 

began  to  wonder  if  he  really  ought  to 
stay.  He  lay  awake  most  of  one  day 
thinking  about  it  and  remembering  the 
sad  look  in  their  little  eyes  when  they 
said  that  they  should  miss  him.  He  was 
so  disturbed  that  he  ate  only  three  small 
roots  during  the  next  night.  The  poor 
old  Bachelor  had  a  hard  time  then,  but 
he  was  so  used  to  having  his  own  way 
and  doing  what  he  had  started  to  do,  and 
not  giving  up  to  anybody,  that  he  stayed 
after  all. 

The  others  went  away  and  he  began  to 
build  his  winter  house  beside  the  biggest 
ditch.  He  placed  it  among  some  bushes, 
so  that  if  the  water  in  the  ditch  should 
ever  overflow  they  would  help  hold  his 
house  in  place.  He  built  it  with  his 
mouth,  bringing  great  mouthfuls  of  grass 
roots  and  rushes  and  dropping  them  on 
the  middle  of  the  heap.  Sometimes  they 
stayed  there  and  sometimes  they  rolled 
down.  If  they  rolled  down  he  never 


126    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

brought  them  back,  for  he  knew  that 
they  would  be  useful  where  they  were. 
When  it  was  done,  the  house  was  shaped 
like  a  pine  cone  with  the  stem  end  down, 
for  after  he  had  made  it  as  high  as  a  tall 
milkweed  he  finished  off  the  long  slope 
up  which  he  had  been  running  and  made 
it  look  like  the  other  sides. 

After  that  he  began  to  burrow  up  into 
it  from  below.  The  right  way  to  do,  he 
knew,  was  to  have  his  doorway  under 
water  and  dive  down  to  it.  Other  winters 
he  had  done  this  and  had  given  the  water 
a  loud  slap  with  his  tail  as  he  dived. 
Now  there  was  not  enough  water  to  dive 
into,  and  when  he  tried  slapping  on  it 
his  tail  went  through  to  the  ditch  bot- 
tom and  got  muddy.  He  had  to  fix 
the  doorway  as  best  he  could,  and  then 
he  ate  out  enough  of  the  inside  of  his 
house  to  make  a  good  room  and  poked  a 
small  hole  through  the  roof  to  let  in 
fresh  air. 


THE  MARSH  SEEMED  SO  EMPTY  AND  LONELY. 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  127 

After  the  house  was  done,  he  slept 
there  during  the  days  and  prowled  around 
outside  at  night.  He  slept  there,  but  ate 
none  of  the  roots  of  which  it  was  made 
until  the  water  in  the  ditch  was  frozen 
hard.  He  knew  that  there  would  be  a 
long,  long  time  when  he  could  not  dig 
fresh  roots  and  must  live  on  those. 

At  night  the  marsh  seemed  so  empty 
and  lonely  that  he  hardly  knew  what 
to  do.  He  did  n't  enjoy  his  meals,  and 
often  complained  to  the  Mice  that  the 
roots  did  not  taste  so  good  to  him  as 
those  they  used  to  have  when  he  was 
young.  He  tried  eating  other  things  and 
found  them  no  better.  When  there  was 
bright  moonlight,  he  sat  upon  the  high- 
est tussock  he  could  find  and  thought 
about  his  grandfathers  and  grandmothers. 
"  If  they  had  not  eaten  their  houses,"  he 
once  said  to  a  Mouse,  "  this  marsh  would 
be  full  of  them." 

"  No  it  would  n't,"  answered  the  Mouse, 


128    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

who  did  n't  really  mean  to  contradict  him, 
but  thought  him  much  mistaken.  "  If 
the  houses  had  n't  been  eaten,  they  would 
have  been  blown  down  by  the  wind  and 
beaten  down  by  rains  and  washed  away 
by  floods.  It  is  better  so.  Who  wants 
things  to  stay  the  way  they  are  forever 
and  ever  ?  I  'd  rather  see  the  trees  drop 
their  leaves  once  in  a  while  and  grow 
new  ones  than  to  wear  the  same  old  ones 
after  they  are  ragged  and  faded." 

The  Bachelor  Muskrat  did  n't  like  this 
very  well,  but  he  could  n't  forget  it. 
When  he  awakened  in  the  daytime  he 
would  think  about  it  and  at  night  he 
thought  more.  He  was  really  very  for- 
lorn, and  because  he  had  nobody  else  to 
think  about  he  thought  too  much  of  himself 
and  began  to  believe  that  he  was  lame  and 
sick.  When  he  sat  on  a  tussock  and  re- 
membered all  the  houses  which  his  grand- 
parents had  built  and  eaten,  he  became 
very  sad  and  sighed  until  his  fat  sides 


Lonely  Old  Muskrat  129 

shook.  He  wished  that  he  could  sleep 
through  the  winter  like  the  Ground  Hog, 
or  through  part  of  it  like  the  Skunk,  but 
just  as  sure  as  night  came  his  eyes  popped 
open  and  there  he  was — awake. 

When  spring  came  he  thought  of  his 
friends  who  had  gone  to  the  swamp  and 
he  knew  that  last  year's  children  were 
marrying  and  digging  burrows  of  their 
own.  The  poor  old  Bachelor  wanted  to 
go  to  them,  yet  he  was  so  used  to  doing 
what  he  had  said  he  would,  and  disliked 
so  much  to  let  anybody  know  that  he  was 
mistaken,  that  he  chose  to  stay  where  he 
was,  without  water  enough  for  diving  and 
with  hardly  enough  for  swimming.  How 
it  would  have  ended  nobody  knows,  had 
the  farmer  not  come  to  plough  up  the  old 
drained  marsh  for  planting  celery. 

Then  the  Bachelor  went.  He  reached 
his  new  home  in  the  early  morning,  and 
the  mothers  let  their  children  stay  up  until 
it  was  quite  light  so  that  he  might  see 


130   Among  the  Night-Time  People 

them  plainly.  "  Is  n't  it  pleasant  here  ?" 
they  cried.  "  Don't  you  like  it  better 
than  the  old  place  ?  " 

"  Oh,  it  does  very  well,"  he  answered, 
"  but  you  must  remember  that  I  only 
moved  because  I  had  to." 

"  Oh,  yes,  we  understand  that,"  said  one 
of  the  mothers,  "  but  we  hope  you  will 
really  like  it  here." 

Afterward   her   husband   said    to    her, 
"  Don't  you  know  he  was  glad  to  come  ? 
What  's  the  use  of  being  so  polite  ?  " 

"  Poor  old  fellow,"  she  answered.  "  He 
is  so  queer  because  he  lives  alone,  and 
I  'm  sorry  for  him.  Just  see  him  eat." 

And  truly  it  was  worth  while  to  watch 
him,  for  the  roots  tasted  sweet  to  him, 
and,  although  he  had  not  meant  to  be,  he 
was  very  happy  —  far  happier  than  if  he 
had  had  his  own  way. 


THE   GREEDY   RED    FOX 

HP  HE  Red  Fox  had  been  well  brought 
*  up.  His  mother  was  a  most  cau- 
tious person  and  devoted  to  her  children. 
When  he  did  things  which  were  wrong, 
he  could  never  excuse  himself  by  saying 
that  he  did  not  know  better.  Of  course 
it  is  possible  that  he  was  like  his  father 
in  being  so  reckless,  yet  none  of  his  two 
brothers. and  three  sisters  were  like  him. 
They  did  not  remember  their  father.  In 
fact,  they  had  never  seen  him,  and  their 
mother  seldom  spoke  of  him. 

His  mother  had  taken  all  the  care  of 
her  six  children,  even  pulling  fur  from 
her  own  belly  to  make  a  soft  nest  cover- 
ing for  them  when  they  were  first  born. 
They  were  such  helpless  babies.  Their 
131 


132    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

eyes  and  ears  were  closed  for  some  time, 
and  all  they  could  do  was  to  tumble  each 
other  around  and  drink  the  warm  milk 
that  their  mother  had  for  them. 

They  had  three  burrows  to  live  in,  all 
of  them  in  an  open  field  between  the 
forest  and  the  farmhouse.  Sometimes 
they  lived  in  the  first,  sometimes  in  the 
second,  and  sometimes  in  the  third.  One 
night  when  their  mother  went  out  to 
hunt,  she  smelled  along  the  ground  near 
the  burrow  and  then  came  back.  "  There 
has  been  a  man  near  here,"  she  said,  "  and 
I  shall  take  you  away." 

That  excited  the  little  Foxes  very 
much,  and  each  wanted  to  be  the  first  to 
go,  but  she  hushed  them  up,  and  said  that 
if  they  talked  so  loudly  as  that  some  man 
might  catch  them  before  they  moved,  and 
then — .  She  said  nothing  more,  yet  they 
knew  from  the  way  she  moved  her  tail 
that  it  would  be  dreadful  to  have  a  man 
catch  them. 


The  Greedy  Red  Fox  133 

While  she  was  carrying  them  to  an- 
other burrow  one  at  a  time,  those  who 
were  left  behind  talked  about  men.  "  I 
wish  I  knew  why  men  are  so  dreadful," 
said  the  first.  "  It  must  be  because  they 
have  very  big  mouths  and  sharp  teeth." 

"  I  wonder  what  color  their  fur  is,"  said 
another. 

Now  these  young  Foxes  had  seen  no- 
body but  their  mother.  If  she  had  not 
told  them  that  different  animals  wore 
different  colored  furs,  they  would  have 
thought  that  everybody  looked  just  like 
her,  with  long  reddish-yellow  fur  and  that 
on  the  hinder  part  of  the  back  quite  griz- 
zled ;  throat,  belly,  and  the  tip  of  the  tail 
white,  and  the  outside  of  the  ears  black. 
They  were  very  sure,  however,  that  no 
other  animal  had  such  a  wonderful  tail  as 
she,  with  each  of  its  long,  reddish  hairs 
tipped  with  black  and  the  beautiful  brush 
of  pure  white  at  the  end.  In  fact,  she  had 
told  them  so. 


134    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

The  next  time  their  mother  came  back, 
the  four  children  who  were  still  there 
cried  out,  "  Please  tell  us,  what  color  is  a 
man's  fur  ?  " 

She  was  a  sensible  and  prudent  Fox, 
and  knew  it  was  much  more  important  to 
keep  her  children  from  being  caught  than 
it  was  to  answer  all  their  questions  at 
once.  Besides,  she  already  had  one  child 
in  her  mouth  when  they  finished  their 
question,  and  she  would  not  put  him 
down  for  the  sake  of  talking.  And  that 
also  was  right,  you  know,  for  one  can 
talk  at  any  time,  but  the  time  to  do  work 
is  just  when  it  needs  to  be  done. 

After  they  were  snugly  settled  in  the 
other  burrow,  she  lay  down  to  feed  them, 
and  while  they  were  drinking  their  milk 
she  told  them  about  men.  "  Men,"  she 
said,  "  are  the  most  dreadful  animals  there 
are.  Other  animals  will  not  trouble  you 
unless  they  are  hungry,  but  a  man  will 
chase  you  even  when  his  stomach  is  full. 


The  Greedy  Red  Fox  135 

They  have  four  legs,  of  course, — all  ani- 
mals have, — but  they  use  only  two  to  walk 
upon.  Their  front  legs  they  use  for  car- 
rying things.  We  carry  with  our  mouths, 
yet  the  only  thing  I  ever  saw  a  man  have 
in  his  mouth  was  a  short  brown  stick  that 
was  afire  at  one  end.  I  thought  it  very 
silly,  for  he  could  n't  help  breathing  some 
of  the  smoke,  and  he  let  the  stick  burn 
up  and  then  threw  the  fire  away.  How- 
ever, men  are  exceedingly  silly  animals." 

One  of  the  little  Red  Foxes  stopped 
drinking  long  enough  to  say,  "  You  did  n't 
tell  us  what  color  their  fur  is." 

"  The  only  fur  they  have,"  said  Mother 
Fox,  "  is  on  their  heads.  They  usually 
have  fur  on  the  top  and  back  parts  of  their 
heads,  and  some  of  them  have  a  little  on 
the  lower  part  of  their  faces.  They  may 
have  black,  red,  brown,  gray,  or  white  fur. 
It  is  never  spotted." 

The  children  would  have  liked  to  ask 
more  questions,  but  Mother  Fox  had  eaten 


136    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

nothing  since  the  night  before,  and  was  in 
a  hurry  to  begin  her  hunt. 

One  could  never  tell  all  that  happened 
to  the  little  Red  Foxes.  They  moved 
from  burrow  to  burrow  many  times  ;  they 
learned  to  eat  meat  which  their  mother 
brought  them  instead  of  drinking  milk 
from  her  body,  they  frolicked  together 
near  the  doorway  of  their  home,  and  while 
they  did  this  their  mother  watched  from 
the  edge  of  the  forest,  ready  to  warn  them 
if  she  saw  men  or  dogs  coming. 

She  had  chosen  to  dig  her  burrows  in 
the  middle  of  a  field,  because  then  there 
was  no  chance  for  men  or  Dogs  to  sneak 
up  to  them  unseen,  as  there  would  have 
been  in  the  forest,  yet  she  feared  that  her 
children  would  be  playing  so  hard  that 
they  might  forget  to  watch.  They  slept 
most  of  the  day,  and  at  night  they  were 
always  awake.  When  they  were  old 
enough,  they  began  to  hunt  for  themselves. 
Mother  Fox  gave  them  a  great  deal  of 


The  Greedy  Red  Fox  137 

good  advice  and  then  paid  no  more  atten- 
tion to  them.  After  that,  she  took  her 
naps  on  a  sunny  hillside,  lying  in  a  beauti- 
ful soft  reddish-yellow  bunch,  with  her 
bushy  tail  curled  around  to  keep  her  feet 
warm  and  shade  her  eyes  from  the  light. 

The  six  brothers  and  sisters  seldom  saw 
each  other  after  this.  Foxes  succeed 
better  in  life  if  they  live  alone,  and  of 
course  they  wanted  to  succeed.  The  eldest 
brother  was  the  reckless  one.  His  mother 
had  done  her  best  by  him,  and  still  he  was 
reckless.  He  knew  by  heart  all  the  rules 
that  she  had  taught  him,  but  he  did  not 
keep  them.  These  were  the  rules  : 

"  Always  run  on  hard,  dry  things  when 
you  can.  Soft,  wet  places  take  more  scent 
from  your  feet,  and  Dogs  can  follow  your 
trail  better  on  them. 

"  Never  go  into  any  place  unless  you 
are  sure  you  can  get  out. 

"  Keep  your  tail  dry.  A  Fox  with  a 
wet  tail  cannot  run  well. 


138    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  If  Dogs  are  chasing  you,  jump  on  to  a 
rail  fence  and  run  along  the  top  of  it  or 
walk  in  a  brook. 

"  Always  be  willing  to  work  for  your 
food.  That  which  you  find  all  ready  and 
waiting  for  you  may  be  the  bait  of  a  trap. 

"  Always  walk  when  you  are  hunting. 
The  Fox  who  trots  will  pass  by  that  which 
he  should  find." 

For  a  while  he  said  them  over  to  him- 
self every  night  when  he  started  out. 
Then  he  began  to  skip  a  night  once  in  a 
while.  Next  he  got  to  saying  them  only 
when  he  had  been  frightened  the  day 
before.  After  that  he  stopped  saying 
them  altogether.  "  I  am  a  full-grown  Fox 
now,"  he  said  to  himself,  "  and  such  things 
are  only  good  for  children.  I  guess  I 
know  how  to  take  care  of  myself." 

He  often  went  toward  the  farmhouse 
to  hunt,  sometimes  for  grapes,  sometimes 
for  vegetables,  and  sometimes  for  heartier 
food.  Collie  had  chased  him  away,  but 


The  Greedy  Red  Fox  139 

Collie  was  growing  old  and  fat  and  had  to 
hang  his  tongue  out  when  he  ran,  so  the 
Red  Fox  thought  it  only  fun.  He  trotted 
along  in  the  moonlight,  his  light,  slender 
body  seeming  to  almost  float  over  the 
ground,  and  his  beautiful  tail  held  straight 
out  behind.  His  short,  slender  legs  were 
strong  and  did  not  tire  easily,  and  as  long 
as  he  could  keep  his  tail  dry  he  outran 
Collie  easily.  Sometimes  he  would  get 
far  ahead  and  sit  down  to  wait  for  him. 
Then  he  would  call  out  saucy  things  to 
the  panting  Dog,  and  only  start  on  when 
Collie's  nose  had  almost  touched  him. 

"  Fine  evening  ! "  he  once  said.  "  Hope 
your  nose  works  better  than  your  legs 
do." 

That  was  a  mean  thing  to  say,  you 
know,  but  Collie  always  keeps  his  temper 
and  only  answered,  "  It 's  sweating  finely, 
thank  you."  He  answered  that  way  be- 
cause it  is  the  sweat  on  a  Dog's  nose 
which  makes  it  possible  for  him  to  smell 


140    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

and  follow  scents  which  dry-nosed  people 
do  not  even  know  about. 

Then  the  Fox  gave  a  long,  light  leap, 
and  was  off  again,  and  Collie  had  to  lie 
down  to  breathe.  "  I  think,"  said  he, 
"  that  I  can  tend  Sheep  better  than  I 
can  chase  Foxes — and  it  is  a  good  deal 
easier."  Still,  Collie  did  n't  like  to  be 
beaten  and  he  lay  awake  the  rest  of  the 
night  thinking  how  he  would  enjoy  catch- 
ing that  Fox.  Every  little  while  he  heard 
the  Red  Fox  barking  off  in  the  fields, 
and  it  made  him  twitch  his  tail  with 
impatience. 

Now  the  Red  Fox  was  walking  care- 
fully toward  the  farmhouse  and  planning 
to  catch  a  Turkey.  He  had  watched  the 
flocks  of  Turkeys  all  afternoon  from  his 
sleeping-place  on  the  hillside.  Every 
time  he  opened  his  eyes  between  naps  he 
had  looked  at  them  as  they  walked  to  and 
fro  in  the  fields,  talking  to  each  other  in 
their  gentle,  complaining  voices  and  mov- 


The  Greedy  Red  Fox  141 

ing  their  heads  back  and  forth  at  every 
step.  If  his  stomach  had  not  been  so 
full  he  would  have  tried  to  catch  one 
then.  He  made  up  his  mind  to  try  it  that 
night,  and  decided  that  he  would  rather 
have  the  plump,  light-colored  one  than 
any  of  her  darker  sisters.  He  did  not 
even  think  of  catching  the  old  Gobbler, 
for  he  was  so  big  and  strong  and  fierce- 
looking.  He  had  just  begun  to  walk  with 
the  Turkey  mothers  and  children.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  they  had  had  nothing  to 
do  with  each  other. 

When  the  Red  Fox  reached  the  farm- 
yard, he  found  them  roosting  on  the  low 
branches  of  an  apple-tree.  A  long  board 
had  been  placed  against  it  to  let  the 
Chickens  walk  up.  Now  the  Chickens 
were  in  the  Hen-house,  but  the  board  was 
still  there.  The  Red  Fox  looked  all 
around.  It  was  a  starlight  night.  The 
farmhouse  was  dark  and  quiet.  Collie 
was  nowhere  to  be  seen.  Once  he  heard 


142    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

a  Horse  stamp  in  his  sleep.  Then  all 
was  still  again. 

The  Red  Fox  walked  softly  up  the 
slanting  board.  The  Gobbler  stirred. 
The  Red  Fox  stopped  with  one  foot  in 
the  air.  When  he  thought  him  fast  asleep 
he  went  on.  The  Gobbler  stirred  again 
and  so  did  the  others.  The  Red  Fox 
sprang  for  the  plump,  light-colored  one. 
She  jumped  also,  and  with  the  others  flew 
far  up  to  the  top  of  the  barn.  The  Red 
Fox  ran  down  the  board  with  five  buff 
tail-feathers  in  his  mouth.  He  was  much 
out  of  patience  with  himself.  "  If  I 
had  n't  stopped  to  pick  for  her,"  he  said, 
"  I  could  have  caught  one  of  the  others 
easily  enough." 

He  sneaked  around  in  the  shadows  to 
see  if  the  noise  made  by  the  turkeys  had 
awakened  the  farmer  or  Collie.  The 
farmhouse  was  still  and  dark.  Collie  was 
not  at  home.  "  I  will  look  at  the  Hen- 
house," said  the  Red  Fox. 


The  Greedy  Red  Fox  143 

He  walked  slowly  and  carefully  to  the 
Hen-house.  The  big  door  was  closed  and 
bolted.  He  walked  all  around  and  into 
the  poultry  yard.  There  was  a  small 
opening  through  which  the  fowls  could 
pass  in  and  out.  The  Red  Fox  managed 
to  crawl  though,  but  it  was  not  easy.  It 
squeezed  his  body  and  crushed  his  fur. 
He  had  to  push  very  hard  with  his  hind 
feet  to  get  through  at  all.  When  he  was 
inside  it  took  him  some  time  to  get  his 
breath.  "  That  's  the  tightest  place  I 
ever  was  in,"  said  he  softly,  "but  I  al- 
ways could  crawl  through  a  very  small 
hole." 

He  found  the  fowls  all  roosting  too 
high  for  him.  Perhaps  if  the  Hen-house 
had  been  larger,  he  might  have  leaped 
and  caught  one,  but  there  was  not  room 
for  one  of  his  finest  springs.  He  went 
to  the  nests  and  found  many  eggs  there. 
These  he  broke  and  ate.  They  ran  down 
in  yellow  streams  from  the  corners  of  his 


144   Among  the  Night-Time  People 

mouth  and  made  his  long  fur  very  sticky. 
You  can  just  imagine  how  hard  it  would 
be  to  eat  raw  eggs  from  the  shell  with 
only  your  paws  in  which  to  hold  them. 

One  egg  was  light  and  slippery.  He 
bit  hard  to  break  that  one,  and  when  it 
broke  it  was  hollow.  Not  a  drop  of  any- 
thing to  eat  in  it,  and  then  it  cut  his  lip  a 
little,  too,  so  that  he  could  not  eat  more 
without  its  hurting.  He  jumped  and 
said  something  when  he  was  cut.  The 
Shanghai  Cock,  who  was  awakened  by  the 
noise,  said  that  he  exclaimed,  "  Brambles 
and  traps ! "  but  it  may  not  have  been 
anything  so  bad  as  that.  We  will  hope 
it  was  not. 

The  Shanghai  Cock  awakened  all  the 
other  fowls.  "  Don't  fly  off  your  perch  ! " 
he  cried.  "  Stay  where  you  are !  Stay 
where  you  are  f  STAY  WHERE  YOU  ARE  ! " 
The  other  Cocks  kept  saying  "Eru-u-u-u," 
as  they  do  when  Hawks  are  near.  The 
Hens  squawked  and  squawked  and 


The  Greedy  Red  Fox  145 

squawked  until  they  were  out  of  breath. 
When  they  got  their  breath  they  squawked 
some  more. 

The  Red  Fox  knew  that  it  was  time  for 
him  to  go.  The  farmer  would  be  sure  to 
hear  the  noise.  He  put  his  head  out  of 
the  hole  through  which  he  had  come  in,  and 
he  pushed  as  hard  as  he  could  with  his 
hind  feet  and  scrambled  with  his  fore  feet. 
His  fur  was  crushed  worse  than  ever,  and 
he  was  squeezed  so  tightly  that  he  could 
hardly  breathe.  You  see  it  had  been  all 
he  could  do  to  get  in  through  the  hole, 
and  now  he  had  nine  eggs  in  his  stomach 
(excepting  what  had  run  down  at  the 
corners  of  his  mouth),  and  he  was  to.o 
large  to  pass  through. 

The  fowls  saw  what  was  the  matter,  and 
wanted  to  laugh.  They  thought  it  very 
funny,  and  yet  the  sooner  he  could  get 
away  the  better  they  would  like  it.  The 
Red  Fox  had  his  head  outside  and  saw  a 
light  flash  in  the  farmer's  room.  Then  he 


146    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

heard  doors  open,  and  the  farmer  came 
toward  the  Hen-house  with  a  lantern  in 
his  hand.  Collie  came  trotting  around  the 
corner  of  the  house.  The  Red  Fox  made 
one  last  desperate  struggle  and  then  lay 
still. 

When  the  farmer  picked  him  up  and 
tied  a  rope  around  his  neck,  he  had  to  pull 
him  backward  into  the  Hen-house  to  do 
it.  The  Red  Fox  was  very  quiet  and 
gentle,  as  people  of  his  family  always  are 
when  caught.  Collie  pranced  around  on 
two  legs  and  barked  as  loudly  as  he  could. 
The  fowls  blinked  their  round  yellow  eyes 
in  the  lantern  light,  and  the  farmer's  man 
ran  out  for  an  empty  Chicken-coop  into 
which  to  put  the  Red  Fox.  Collie  was 
usually  quite  polite,  but  he  had  not  for- 
gotten how  rude  the  Red  Fox  had  been 
to  him,  and  it  was  a  fine  chance  to  get 
even. 

"  Good  evening  ! "  he  barked.  "  Oh, 
good  evening  !  I  'm  glad  you  came.  Don't 


The  Greedy  Red  Fox  147 

think  you  must  be  going.  Excuse  me, 
but  your  mouth  worked  better  than  your 
legs,  did  n't  it  ?  " 

The  Red  Fox  shut  his  eyes  and  pre- 
tended not  to  hear.  The  dirt  from  the 
floor  of  the  Hen-house  had  stuck  to  his 
egg-covered  fur,  and  he  looked  very  badly. 
They  put  him  in  a  Chicken-coop  with  a 
board  floor,  so  that  he  could  n't  burrow 
out,  and  he  curled  down  in  a  little  heap 
and  hid  his  face  with  his  tail.  Collie  hung 
around  for  a  while  and  then  went  off  to 
sleep.  After  he  was  gone,  the  Red  Fox 
cleaned  his  fur.  "  I  got  caught  this  time," 
he  said,  "  but  it  won't  happen  again.  Now 
I  must  watch  for  a  chance  to  get  away. 
It  will  surely  come." 

It  did  come.     But  that  is  another  story. 


THE    UNFORTUNATE    FIRE- 
FLIES 

OEVERAL  very  large  families  of  Fire- 
^  flies  lived  in  the  marsh  and  were 
much  admired  by  their  friends  who  were 
awake  at  night.  Once  in  a  while  some 
young  Firefly  who  happened  to  awaken 
during  the  day  would  go  out  and  hover 
over  the  heads  of  the  daylight  people. 
He  never  had  any  attention  paid  to  him 
then,  however,  for  during  the  day  he 
seemed  like  a  very  commonplace  little 
beetle  and  nobody  even  cared  to  look  at 
him  a  second  time.  The  only  remarkable 
thing  about  him  was  the  soft  light  that 
shone  from  his  body,  and  that  could  only 
be  seen  at  night. 

The   older  Fireflies  told  the  younger 
148 


The  Unfortunate  Fireflies         149 

ones  that  they  should  get  all  the  sleep 
they  could  during  the  daytime  if  they 
were  to  flutter  and  frisk  all  night.  Most 
of  them  did  this,  but  two  young  Fireflies, 
who  cared  more  about  seeing  the  world 
than  they  did  about  minding  their  elders, 
used  to  run  away  while  the  rest  were 
dreaming.  Each  thought  herself  very  im- 
portant, and  was.  sure  that  if  the  others 
missed  her  they  would  n't  sleep  a  wink  all 
day. 

One  night  they  planned  to  go  by  day- 
light to  the  farthest  corner  of  the  marsh. 
They  had  heard  a  couple  of  young  Musk- 
rats  talking  about  it,  and  thought  it  might 
be  different  from  anything  they  had  seen. 
They  went  to  bed  when  the  rest  did  and 
pretended  to  fall  asleep.  When  she  was 
sure  that  the  older  Fireflies  were  dream- 
ing, one  of  them  reached  over  with  her 
right  hind  leg  and  touched  the  other  just 
below  the  edge  of  her  left  wing-cover. 
"  Are  you  ready  ?  "  she  whispered. 


150    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  Yes,"  answered  the  friend,  who  hap- 
pened to  be  the  smaller  of  the  two. 

"  Come  on,  then,"  said  the  larger  one, 
picking  her  way  along  on  her  six  tiptoes. 
It  was  already  growing  light,  and  they 
could  see  where  they  stepped,  but,  you 
know,  it  is  hard  to  walk  over  rough  places 
on  two  tiptoes,  so  you  can  imagine  what 
it  must  be  on  six.  There  are  some  pleas- 
ant things  about  having  many  legs.  There 
are  also  some  hard  things.  It  is  a  great 
responsibility. 

When  well  away  from  their  sleeping 
relatives,  they  lifted  their  wing-covers, 
spread  their  wings,  and  flew  to  the  far- 
thest corner  of  the  marsh.  They  were  not 
afraid  of  being  punished  if  caught,  for  they 
were  orphans  and  had  nobody  to  bring 
them  up.  They  were  afraid  that  if  the  other 
Fireflies  awakened  they  would  be  called 
"silly"  or  "foolish  young  bugs."  They 
thought  that  they  were  old  enough  to  take 
care  of  themselves,  and  did  not  want  advice. 


The  Unfortunate  Fireflies         151 

"  Oh,  would  n't  they  make  a  fuss  if  they 
knew  !  "  exclaimed  the  Larger  Firefly. 

"  They  think  we  need  to  be  told  every 
single  thing,"  said  the  Smaller  Firefly. 

"  Guess  we  're  old  enough  now  to  go 
off  by  ourselves,"  said  the  Larger  Firefly. 

"  I  guess  so,"  answered  the  Smaller  Fire- 
fly. "  I  'm  not  afraid  if  it  is  light,  and  I  can 
see  pretty  near  as  well  as  I  can  at  night." 

Just  then  a  Flycatcher  darted  toward 
them  and  they  had  to  hide.  He  had 
come  so  near  that  they  could  look  down 
his  throat  as  he  flew  along  with  his  beak 
open.  The  Fireflies  were  so  scared  that 
their  feelers  shook. 

"  I  wish  that  bird  would  mind  his  own 
business,"  grumbled  the  Larger  Firefly. 

"  That  's  just  what  he  was  doing,"  said 
a  voice  beside  them,  as  a  Garter  Snake 
drew  himself  through  the  grass.  Then 
their  feelers  shook  again,  for  they  knew 
that  snakes  do  not  breakfast  on  grass  and 
berries. 


152    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

"  Did  you  ever  see  such  luck  ?"  said  the 
Smaller  Firefly.  "  If  it  is  n't  birds  it  is 
snakes." 

"  Perfectly  dreadful !  "  answered  the 
other.  "  I  never  knew  the  marsh  to  be 
so  full  of  horrid  people.  Besides,  my  eyes 
are  bothering  me  and  I  can't  see  plainly." 

"  So  are  mine,"  said  the  Smaller  Firefly. 
"  Are  you  going  to  tell  the  other  Fireflies 
all  about  things  to-night  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know  that  I  will,"  said  the 
Larger  Firefly.  "  I  '11  make  them  ask 
me  first." 

Then  they  reached  the  farther  corner  of 
the  marsh  and  crawled  around  to  see  what 
they  could  find.  Their  eyes  bothered 
them  so  that  they  could  not  see  unless 
they  were  close  to  things,  so  it  was  use- 
less to  fly.  They  peeped  into  the  cool 
dark  corners  under  the  skunk  cabbage 
leaves,  and  lay  down  to  rest  on  a  bed  of 
soft  moss.  A  few  stalks  of  last  year's 
teazles  stood,  stiff  and  brown,  in  the  cor- 


The  Unfortunate  Fireflies         153 

ner  of  the  fence.  The  Smaller  Firefly 
alighted  on  one  and  let  go  in  such  a 
hurry  that  she  fell  to  the  ground. 
"  Ouch  !  "  she  cried.  "  It  has  sharp  hooks 
all  over  it." 

While  they  were  lying  on  the  moss 
and  resting,  they  noticed  a  queer  plant 
growing  near.  It  had  a  flower  of  green 
and  dark  red  which  was  unlike  any  other 
blossom  they  had  ever  seen.  The  leaves 
were  even  queerer.  Each  was  stiff  and 
hollow  and  grew  right  out  of  the  ground 
instead  of  coming  from  a  stalk. 

"  I  'm  going  to  crawl  into  one  of  them," 
said  the  Larger  Firefly.  "  There  is  some- 
thing sweet  inside.  I  believe  it  will  be 
lots  better  than  the  skunk  cabbage."  She 
balanced  herself  on  the  top  of  a  fresh 
green  leaf. 

"  I  'm  going  into  this  one,"  said  the 
other  Firefly,  as  she  alighted  on  the  edge 
of  a  brown-tipped  leaf.  "It  looks  nice 
and  dark  inside.  We  must  tell  about  this 


154    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

at  the  party  to-night,  even  if  they  don't 
ask  us." 

Then  they  repeated  together  the  little 
verse  that  some  of  the  pond  people  use 
when  they  want  to  start  together  : 

"  Tussock,  mud,  water,  and  log, 
Muskrat,  Snake,  Turtle,  and  Frog, 
Here  we  go  into  the  bog  !  " 
When    they   said    "bog"    each    dropped 
quickly  into  her  own  leaf. 

For  a  minute  nobody  made  a  sound. 
Then  there  was  a  queer  sputtering,  chok- 
ing voice  in  the  fresh  green  leaf  and 
exactly  the  same  in  the  brown-tipped  one. 
After  that  a  weak  little  voice  in  the  green 
leaf  said,  "  Abuschougerh !  I  fell  into 
water." 

Another  weak  voice  from  the  brown- 
tipped  one  replied,  "  Gtschagust  !  So 
did  I." 

On  the  inside  of  each  leaf  were  many 
stiff  hairs,  all  pointing  downward.  When 
the  Fireflies  dropped  in,  they  had  brushed 


The  Unfortunate  Fireflies         155 

easily  past  these  hairs  and  thought  it 
rather  pleasant.  Now  that  they  were 
sputtering  and  choking  inside,  and  wanted 
to  get  out,  these  same  hairs  stuck  into 
their  eyes  and  pushed  against  their  legs 
and  made  them  exceedingly  uncomforta- 
ble. The  water,  too,  had  stood  for  some 
time  in  the  leaves  and  did  not  smell 
good. 

Perhaps  it  would  be  just  as  well  not  to 
tell  all  the  things  which  those  two  Fire- 
flies said,  for  they  were  tired  and  out  of 
patience.  After  a  while  they  gave  up 
trying  to  get  out  until  they  should  be 
rested.  It  was  after  sunset  when  they 
tried  the  last  time,  and  the  light  that 
shone  from  their  bellies  brightened  the 
little  green  rooms  where  they  were. 
They  rested  and  went  at  it  carefully,  in- 
stead of  in  the  angry,  jerky  way  which 
they  had  tried  before.  Slowly,  one  foot 
at  a  time,  they  managed  to  climb  out  of 
the  doorway  at  the  top.  As  they  came 


156    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

out,  they  heard  the  squeaky  voice  of  a 
young  Mouse  say,  "  Oh,  where  did  those 
bright  things  come  from  ?  " 

They  also  heard  his  mother  answer, 
"  Those  are  only  a  couple  of  foolish  Fire- 
flies who  have  been  in  the  leaves  of  the 
pitcher-plant  all  day." 

After  they  had  eaten  something  they 
flew  toward  home.  They  knew  that  it 
would  be  late  for  the  party,  and  they  ex- 
pected to  surprise  and  delight  everybody 
when  they  reached  there.  On  the  way 
they  spoke  of  this.  "  I  'm  dreadfully 
tired,"  said  one,  "  but  I  suppose  we  shall 
have  to  dance  in  the  air  with  the  rest  or 
they  will  make  a  fuss." 

"  Yes,"  said  the  other.  "  It  spoils 
everything  if  we  are  not  there.  And 
we  '11  have  to  tell  where  we  Ve  been  and 
what  we  Ve  done  and  whom  we  have 
seen,  when  we  would  rather  go  to  sleep 
and  make  up  what  we  lost  during  the 
daytime." 


TWINKLING  WITH  HUNDREDS  OF  TINY  LIGHTS.  /V  J57 


The  Unfortunate  Fireflies         157 

As  they  came  near  the  middle  of  the 
marsh  they  were  surprised  to  see  the 
mild  summer  air  twinkling  with  hundreds 
of  tiny  lights  as  their  friends  and  rel- 
atives flew  to  and  fro  in  the  dusk. 
"  Well,"  said  the  Larger  Firefly,  "  I 
think  they  might  have  waited  for  us." 

"  Humph  ! "  said  the  Smaller  Firefly. 
"  If  they  can't  be  more  polite  than  that, 
I  won't  play." 

"  After  we  Ve  had  such  a  dreadfully 
hard  time,  too,"  said  the  Larger  Firefly. 
"  Got  most  eaten  by  a  Flycatcher  and 
scared  by  a  Garter  Snake  and  shut  up  all 
day  in  the  pitcher-plant.  I  won't  move 
a  wing  to  help  on  their  old  party." 

So  two  very  tired  and  cross  young 
Fireflies  sat  on  a  last  year's  cat-tail  and 
sulked.  People  did  n't  notice  them  be- 
cause they  were  sitting  and  their  bright 
bellies  didn't  show.  After  a  long  time 
an  elderly  Firefly  came  to  rest  on  the  cat- 
tail and  found  them.  "  Good  evening," 


158    Among  the  Nigh  t-Time  People 

said  he.  "  Have  you  danced  until  you 
are  tired  ?  " 

They  looked  at  each  other,  but  before 
either  could  speak  one  of  their  young 
friends  alighted  beside  them  and  said 
the  same  thing.  Then  the  Smaller  Fire- 
fly answered.  "  We  have  been  away," 
said  she,  "  and  we  are  not  dancing  to- 
night." 

"  Going  away,  did  you  say  ? "  asked 
the  elderly  Firefly,  who  was  rather  deaf. 
"  I  hope  you  will  have  a  delightful  time." 
Then  he  bowed  and  flew  off. 

"  Don't  stay  long,"  added  their  young 
friend.  "  We  shall  be  so  lonely  without 
you." 

After  he  also  was  gone,  the  two  runa- 
ways looked  into  each  other's  eyes. 
"  We  were  not  even  missed  !  "  they  cried. 
"  We  had  a  bad  time  and  nobody  makes 
any  fuss.  They  were  dancing  without 
us."  Poor  little  Fireflies  ! 

They  were  much  wiser  after  that,  for 


The  Unfortunate  Fireflies         159 

they  had  learned  that  two  young  Fire- 
flies were  not  so  wonderfully  important 
after  all.  And  that  if  they  chose  to  do 
things  which  it  was  never  meant  young 
Fireflies  should  do,  they  would  be  likely 
to  have  a  very  disagreeable  time,  but 
that  other  Fireflies  would  go  on  eating 
and  dancing  and  living  their  own  lives. 
To  be  happy,  they  must  keep  the  Fire- 
fly laws. 


THE  KITTENS  COME  TO  THE 
FOREST 

E  day  the  three  big  Kittens  who 
lived  with  their  mother  in  the  farm- 
er's barn  had  a  dreadful  quarrel.  If  their 
mother  had  been  with  them,  she  would 
probably  have  cuffed  each  with  her  fore 
paw  and  scolded  them  soundly.  She  was 
not  with  them  because  she  had  four  little 
new  Kittens  lying  beside  her  in  the  hay- 
loft over  the  stalls. 

You  would  think  that  the  older  Kittens 
must  have  been  very  proud  of  their  baby 
brothers  and  sisters,  yet  they  were  not. 
They  might  have  done  kind  little  things  for 
their  mother,  but  they  did  n't.  They  just 
hunted  food  for  themselves  and  never 
took  a  mouthful  of  it  to  her.  And  this 
160 


The  Kittens  Come  to  the  Forest     161 

does  not  prove  that  they  were  bad  Kit- 
tens. It  just  shows  that  they  were  young 
and  thoughtless. 

The  Brown  Kitten,  the  one  whose  fur 
was  black  and  yellow  mixed  so  finely  as 
to  look  brown,  had  climbed  the  barn  stairs 
to  see  them.  When  he  reached  their  cor- 
ner he  sat  down  and  growled  at  them. 
His  mother  said  nothing  at  first,  but  when 
he  went  so  far  as  to  switch  his  tail  in  a 
threatening  way,  she  left  her  new  babies 
and  sprang  at  him  and  told  him  not  to 
show  his  whiskers  upstairs  again  until  he 
could  behave  properly. 

His  sisters,  the  Yellow  Kitten  and  the 
White  Kitten,  stayed  downstairs.  They 
did  n't  dislike  babies  so  much  as  their 
brother.  They  just  did  n't  care  anything 
about  them.  Cats  never  care  much  about 
Kittens,  you  know,  unless  they  are  their 
own,  and  big  brothers  always  say  that 
they  can't  bear  them. 

Now  these   three    older    Kittens  were 


162    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

perfectly  able  to  care  for  themselves.  It 
was  a  long  time  since  their  mother 
stopped  feeding  them,  and  they  were 
already  excellent  hunters.  They  had 
practised  crouching,  crawling,  and  spring- 
ing before  they  left  the  hay-loft.  Some- 
times they  hunted  wisps  of  hay  that 
moved  when  the  wind  blew  in  through 
the  open  door.  Sometimes  they  pounced 
on  each  other,  and  sometimes  they  hunted 
the  Grasshoppers  who  got  brought  in 
with  the  hay.  It  was  when  they  were 
doing  this  once  that  they  were  so  badly 
scared,  but  that  is  a  story  which  has  al- 
ready been  told. 

There  was  no  reason  why  they  should 
feel  neglected  or  worry  about  getting 
enough  to  eat.  If  one  of  them  had  poor 
luck  in  hunting,  all  he  had  to  do  was 
to  hang  around  the  barn  when  the  Cows 
were  brought  up,  and  go  into  the  house 
with  the  man  when  he  carried  the  great 
pails  full  of  foamy  milk.  Then  if  the  Kit- 


The  Kittens  Come  to  the  Forest     163 

tens  acted  hungry,  mewed  very  loudly, 
and  rubbed  up  lovingly  against  the  farm- 
er's wife  they  were  sure  to  get  a  good 
dishful  of  warm  milk. 

You  can  see  how  unreasonable  they 
were.  They  had  plenty  to  eat,  and  their 
mother  loved  them  just  as  much  as  ever, 
but  they  felt  hurt  and  sulked  around  in 
corners,  and  answered  each  other  quite 
rudely,  and  would  not  run  after  a  string 
which  the  farmer's  little  girl  dangled  be- 
fore them.  They  were  not  cross  all  the 
time,  because  they  had  been  up  the  whole 
night  and  had  to  sleep.  They  stopped 
being  cross  when  they  fell  asleep  and  be- 
gan again  as  soon  as  they  awakened.  The 
Hens  who  were  feeding  around  became 
so  used  to  it  that  as  soon  as  they  saw  a 
Kitten  twist  and  squirm,  and  act  like 
awakening,  they  put  their  heads  down 
and  ran  away  as  fast  as  they  could. 

They  did  not  even  keep  themselves 
clean.  Oh,  they  licked  themselves  over 


164    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

two  or  three  times  during-  the  day,  but 
not  thoroughly.  The  Yellow  Kitten  did 
not  once  try  to  catch  her  tail  and  scrub 
it,  and  actually  wore  an  unwashed  tail  all 
day.  It  did  n't  show  very  plainly  because 
it  was  yellow,  but  that  made  it  no  cleaner. 
The  White  Kitten  went  around  with  her 
fore  paws  looking  really  disgraceful.  The 
Brown  Kitten  scrubbed  his  ears  in  a  sort 
of  half-hearted  way,  and  paid  no  attention 
to  the  place  under  his  chin.  When  he 
did  his  ears,  he  gave  his  paw  one  lick  and 
his  ear  one  rub,  and  repeated  this  only 
six  times.  Everybody  knows  that  a  truly 
tidy  Cat  wets  his  paw  with  two  licks, 
cleans  his  ear  with  two  rubs,  and  does 
this  over  and  over  from  twenty  to  forty 
times  before  he  begins  on  the  other  ear. 

Toward  night  they  quarrelled  over  a 
dishful  of  milk  which  the  farmer's  wife 
gave  them.  There  was  plenty  of  room 
for  them  all  to  put  their  heads  into  the 
dish  at  once  and  lap  until  each  had  his 


The  Kittens  Come  to  the  Forest     165 

share.  If  it  had  not  been  for  their  whisk- 
ers, there  would  have  been  no  trouble. 
These  hit,  and  each  told  the  others  to 
step  back  and  wait.  Nobody  did,  and 
there  was  such  a  fuss  that  the  farmer's 
wife  took  the  dish  away  and  none  of 
them  had  any  more.  They  began  to 
blame  each  other  and  talk  so  loudly  that 
the  man  drove  them  all  away  as  fast  as 
they  could  scamper. 

Now  that  they  were  separated,  each  be- 
gan to  grow  more  and  more  discontented. 
The  Brown  Kitten  had  crawled  under  the 
carriage  house,  and  as  soon  as  it  was 
really  dark  he  stole  off  to  the  forest. 

"  My  mother  has  more  Kittens,"  he 
said,  "  and  my  sisters  get  my  whiskers  all 
out  of  shape,  and  I  '11  go  away  and  never 
come  back.  I  won't  say  good-by  to  them 
either.  I  guess  they  '11  feel  badly  then 
and  wish  they  'd  been  nicer  to  me  !  If 
they  ever  find  me  and  want  me  to  come 
back,  I  won't  go.  Not  if  they  beg  and 


i66    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

beg  !  I  '11  just  turn  my  tail  toward  them 
and  walk  away." 

The  Brown  Kitten  knew  that  Cats 
sometimes  went  to  live  in  the  woods  and 
got  along  very  well.  He  was  not  ac- 
quainted with  one  who  had  done  this ; 
his  mother  had  told  him  and  his  sisters 
stories  of  Cats  who  chose  to  live  so.  She 
said  that  was  one  thing  which  showed 
how  much  more  clever  they  were  than 
Dogs.  Dogs,  you  know,  cannot  live  hap- 
pily away  from  men,  although  there  may 
be  the  best  of  hunting  around  them. 

"  I  will  find  a  good  hollow  tree,"  said 
he,  "  for  my  home,  and  I  will  sleep  there 
all  day  and  hunt  at  night.  I  will  eat  so 
much  that  I  shall  grow  large  and  strong. 
Then,  when  I  go  out  to  hunt,  the  forest 
people  will  say,  '  Sh  !  Here  comes  the 
Brown  Cat.' " 

As  he  thought  this  he  was  running 
softly  along  the  country  road  toward  the 
forest.  Once  in  a  while  he  stopped  to 


The  Kittens  Come  to  the  Forest     167 

listen,  and  stood  with  his  head  raised  and 
turned  and  one  fore  foot  in  the  air.  He 
kept  his  ears  pointed  forward  all  the 
time  so  as  to  hear  better. 

When  he  passed  the  marsh  he  saw  the 
Fireflies  dancing  in  the  air.  Sometimes 
they  flew  so  low  that  a  Kitten  might 
catch  them.  He  thought  he  would  try, 
so  he  crawled  through  the  fence  and  to- 
ward the  place  where  they  were  dancing. 
He  passed  two  tired  ones  sitting  on  a  leaf 
and  never  saw  them.  That  was  because 
their  wings  covered  their  sides  so  well 
that  no  light  shone  past,  and  their  bright 
bellies  were  close  to  the  leaf.  He  had 
almost  reached  the  dancers  when  he  found 
his  paws  getting  wet  and  muddy.  That 
made  him  turn  back  at  once,  for  mud  was 
something  he  could  n't  stand.  "  I  wish  I 
had  something  to  eat,"  he  said,  as  he  took 
a  bite  of  catnip.  "  This  is  very  good  for 
a  relish,  but  not  for  a  whole  meal." 

He     trotted    on    toward    the     forest, 


1 68    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

thinking  about  milk  and  Fireflies  and  sev- 
eral other  things,  when  he  was  stopped  by 
some  great  winged  person  flying  down 
toward  him  and  then  sweeping  upward 
and  alighting  on  a  branch.  The  Brown 
Kitten  drew  back  stiffly  and  said, 
"  Ha-a-ah  ! " 

"Who?  Who?  To  who  ?"  asked  the 
person  on  the  branch. 

The  Brown  Kitten  answered,  "  It  is  I." 
But  the  question  came  again  :  "  Who  ? 
Who?  To  who?" 

That  made  the  Brown  Kitten  remem- 
ber that,  since  his  voice  was  not  known 
in  the  forest,  nobody  could  tell  anything 
by  his  answer.  This  time  he  replied  :  "  I 
am  the  Brown  Kitten,  if  you  please,  and 
I  have  come  to  live  in  the  forest." 

"Who?  Who?  To  who?"  was  the 
next  question,  and  the  Brown  Kitten 
thought  he  was  asked  to  whose  home  he 
was  going. 

"  I  am  not  going  to  anybody,"  he  said. 


The  Kittens  Come  to  the  Forest     169 

"  I  just  wanted  to  come,  and  left  my  old 
home  suddenly.  I  shall  live  alone  and 
have  a  good  time.  I  did  n't  even  tell  my 
mother." 

"Who?  Who?  To  who?"  said  the 
Great  Horned  Owl,  for  it  was  he. 

"  My  m-mother,"  said  the  Brown  Kit- 
ten, and  then  he  ran  away  as  fast  as  he 
could.  He  had  seen  the  Owl  more 
clearly  as  he  spoke,  and  the  Owl's  face 
reminded  him  a  little  of  his  mother  and 
made  him  want  to  see  her.  He  ran  so 
fast  that  he  almost  bumped  into  the 
Skunk,  who  was  taking  a  dignified  stroll 
through  the  forest  and  sniffing  at  nearly 
everything  he  saw.  It  was  very  lucky, 
you  know,  that  he  did  not  quite  run  into 
the  Skunk,  for  Skunks  do  not  like  to 
be  run  into,  and,  if  he  had  done  so,  other 
people  would  soon  have  been  sniffing  at 
him. 

The  Brown  Kitten  thought  that  the 
Skunk  might  be  related  to  him.  They 


170    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

were  about  the  same  size,  and  the  Brown 
Kitten  had  been  told  that  his  relatives 
were  not  only  different  colors,  but  differ- 
ent shapes.  His  mother  had  told  of  see- 
ing some  Manx  Kittens  who  had  no  tails 
at  all,  and  he  thought  that  the  Skunk's 
elegant  long-haired  one  need  n't  prevent 
his  being  a  Cat. 

"  Good  evening,"  said  the  Brown  Kit- 
ten. "  Would  you  mind  telling  me  if  you 
are  a  Cat  ?  " 

"Cat?  No!"  growled  the  Skunk. 
"  They  sometimes  call  me  a  Wood-Kitty, 
but  they  have  no  right  to.  I  am  a  Skunk, 
Skunk,  SKUNK,  and  I  am  related  to  the 
Weasles.  Step  out  of  my  path." 

A  family  of  young  Raccoons  in  a  tree 
called  down  teasingly  to  him  to  come  up, 
but  after  he  had  started  they  told  him  to 
go  down,  and  then  laughed  at  him  be- 
cause he  had  to  go  tail  first.  He  did 
not  know  that  forest  climbers  turn  the 
toes  of  their  hind  feet  backward  and 


The  Kittens  Come  to  the  Forest     171 

scamper  down  head  first.  Still,  it  would 
have  made  no  difference  if  he  had  known, 
for  his  toes  would  n't  turn. 

He  found  something  to  eat  now  and 
then,  and  he  looked  for  a  hollow  tree. 
He  found  only  one,  and  that  was  a  Bee 
tree,  so  he  could  n't  use  it.  All  around 
him  the  most  beautiful  mushrooms  were 
pushing  up  from  the  ground.  White, 
yellow,  orange,  red,  and  brown  they  were, 
and  looked  so  plump  and  fair  that  he 
wanted  to  bite  them.  He  knew,  how- 
ever, that  some  of  them  were  very  poison- 
ous, so  he  did  n't  even  lick  them  with  his 
eager,  rough  little  pink  tongue.  He  was 
just  losing  his  Kitten  teeth,  and  his 
new  Cat  teeth  were  growing,  and  they 
made  him  want  to  bite  almost  everything 
he  saw.  One  kind  of  mushroom,  which 
he  thought  the  prettiest  of  all,  grew  only 
on  the  trunks  of  fallen  beech  trees.  It 
was  white,  and  had  a  great  many  little 
branches,  all  very  close  together. 


172    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Most  of  the  plants  which  he  saw  were 
sound  asleep.  Every  plant  has  to  sleep, 
you  know,  and  most  of  them  take  a  long 
nap  at  night.  Some  of  them,  like  the 
water-lilies,  also  sleep  on  cloudy  days. 
He  was  very  fond  of  the  clovers,  but 
they  had  their  leaflets  folded  tight,  and 
only  the  mushrooms,  the  evening  prim- 
roses, and  a  few  others  were  wide  awake. 
Everybody  whom  he  met  was  a  stranger, 
and  he  began  to  feel  very  lonely.  Cats 
do  not  usually  mind  being  alone.  In- 
deed, they  rather  like  it ;  still,  you  can 
see  how  hard  it  would  be  for  a  Kitten 
who  had  always  been  loved  and  cared  for 
to  find  himself  alone  in  a  dark  forest, 
where  great  birds  ask  the  same  questions 
over  and  over,  and  other  people  make 
fun  of  him.  You  would  n't  like  it  your- 
self, if  you  were  a  Kitten. 

At  last,  when  he  was  prowling  along 
an  old  forest  road  and  hoping  to  meet  a 
tender  young  Wood-Mouse,  he  saw  a 


The  Kittens  Come  to  the  Forest     173 

couple  of  light-colored  animals  ahead  of 
him.  They  looked  to  him  very  much 
like  Kittens,  but  he  remembered  how  the 
Skunk  had  snubbed  him  when  taken  for 
a  Cat,  and  he  kept  still.  He  ran  to  over- 
take them  and  see  more  clearly,  and  just 
as  he  reached  them  they  all  came  to  a 
turn  in  the  road. 

Before  he  could  speak  or  they  could 
notice  that  he  was  there,  the  wind  roared 
through  the  branches  above,  and  just 
ahead  two  terrible  great  eyes  glared  at 
them  out  of  an  old  log.  They  all  stopped 
with  their  back-fur  bristling  and  their 
tails  arched  stiffly.  Not  a  sound  did  one 
of  them  make.  They  lifted  first  one  foot 
and  then  another  and  backed  slowly 
and  silently  away.  When  they  had  gone 
far  enough,  they  turned  quickly  and  ran 
down  the  old  road  as  fast  as  their 
twelve  feet  could  carry  them.  They 
never  stopped  until  they  were  in  the 
road  for  home  and  could  look  back  in  the 


174    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

starlight  and  be  sure  that  nobody  was 
following  them.  Then  they  stared  at 
each  other— the  Yellow  Kitten,  the  White 
Kitten,  and  the  Brown  Kitten. 

"  Did  you  run  away  to  live  in  the  for- 
est ?  "  asked  the  sisters. 

"  Did  you  ?  "  asked  the  Brown  Kitten. 

"  You  '11  never  tell  ? "  said  they. 

"  Never  ! "  said  he. 

"  Well  then,  we  did  run  away,  and  met 
each  other  just  before  you  came.  We 
meant  to  live  in  the  forest." 

"  So  did  I,"  said  he.  "  And  I  could  n't 
find  any  hollow  tree." 

"Did  you  meet  that  dreadful  bird?" 
said  they, — "  the  one  who  never  hears 
your  answers  and  keeps  asking  you  over 
and  over  ? " 

"  Yes,"  said  he.    "  Don 't  you  ever  tell ! " 

"Ha-ha!"  screamed  a  laughing  little 
Screech-Owl,  who  had  seen  what  had 
happened  in  the  old  forest  road  and 
flapped  along  noiselessly  behind  them. 


The  Kittens  Come  to  the  Forest     1 75 

"  Three  big  Kittens  afraid  of  fox-fire ! 
O-ho  !  O-ho  ! " 

Now  all  of  them  had  heard  about  fox- 
fire and  knew  it  was  the  light  which 
shines  from  some  kinds  of  rotten  wood  in 
the  dark,  but  they  held  up  their  heads  and 
answered,  "  We  're  not  afraid  of  fox-fire." 

"Ha-ha!"  screamed  the  Screech-Owl 
again.  "  Thought  you  saw  big  eyes  glar- 
ing at  you.  Only  fox-fire.  Dare  you  to 
come  back  if  you  are  not  afraid." 

"  We  don't  want  to  go  back,"  answered 
the  Brown  Kitten.  "  We  have  n't  time." 

"Ha-ha!"  screamed  the  Screech-Owl. 
"  Have  n't  time  !  Where  are  you  going  ? " 

"  Going  home,  of  course,"  answered 
the  Brown  Kitten.  And  then  he  whis- 
pered to  his  sisters,  "  Let 's  !  " 

"  All  right,"  said  they,  and  they  raced 
down  the  road  as  fast  as  they  could  go. 
To  this  day  their  mother  does  not  know 
that  they  ever  ran  away  from  home. 

But  it  was  only  fox-fire. 


THE  INQUISITIVE  WEASELS 

'""PHE  Weasels  were  very  unpopular  with 
1  most  of  the  forest  people,  the  pond 
and  meadow  people  did  not  like  them, 
and  those  who  lived  in  the  farmyard 
could  n't  bear  them.  Something  went 
wrong  there  every  time  that  a  Weasel 
came  to  call.  Once,  you  know,  the  Dork- 
ing Hen  was  so  frightened  that  she 
broke  her  wonderful  shiny  egg,  and  there 
were  other  times  when  even  worse  things 
had  happened.  Usually  there  was  a 
Chicken  or  two  missing  after  the  Weasel 
had  gone. 

The  Weasels  were  very  fond  of  their 

own  family,  however,  and  would  tell  their 

best  secrets  to  each  other.     That  meant 

almost  as  much  with  them  as  to  share  food, 

176 


The  Inquisitive  Weasels  177 

for  they  were  very  inquisitive  and  always 
wanted  to  know  all  about  everything. 
They  minded  their  own  business,  but  they 
minded  everybody's  else  as  well.  If  you 
told  a  thing  to  one  Weasel  you  might  be 
sure  that  before  the  night  was  over  every 
Weasel  in  the  neighborhood  would  know 
all  about  it.  They  told  other  people,  too, 
when  they  had  a  chance.  They  were 
dreadful  gossips.  If  they  saw  a  person 
do  something  the  least  unusual,  they 
thought  about  it  and  talked  about  it  and 
wondered  what  it  meant,  and  decided  that 
it  meant  something  very  remarkable  and 
became  very  much  excited.  At  such  times, 
they  made  many  excuses  to  go  calling,  and 
always  managed  to  tell  about  what  they 
had  seen,  what  they  had  heard,  and  what 
they  were  perfectly  certain  it  meant. 

They  went  everywhere,  and  could  go 
quietly  and  without  being  noticed.  They 
were  small  people,  about  as  long  as  Rats, 
but  much  more  slender,  and  with  such 


178    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

short  legs  that  their  bodies  seemed  to 
almost  lie  on  the  ground.  All  their  fur 
was  brown,  except  that  on  their  bellies  and 
the  inside  of  their  legs,  which  was  pure 
white.  Sometimes  the  fur  on  their  feet 
matched  their  backs  and  sometimes  it 
matched  their  bellies.  That  was  as  might 
happen.  You  can  easily  see  how  they 
could  steal  along  over  the  brown  earth  or 
the  dead  leaves  and  grass  without  showing 
plainly.  In  winter  they  turned  white,  and 
then  they  did  not  show  on  the  snow.  The 
very  tip  of  their  short  tails  stayed  a  pale 
brown,  but  it  was  so  tiny  as  hardly  to  be 
noticed.  Any  Hawk  in  the  air,  who  saw 
just  that  bit  of  brown  on  the  snow  beneath 
him,  would  be  likely  to  think  it  a  leaf  or  a 
piece  of  bark  and  pay  no  more  attention 
to  it. 

The  Weasel  mothers  were  very  careful 
of  their  children  and  very  brave.  It  made 
no  difference  how  great  the  danger  might 
be,  they  would  stay  by  their  babies  and 


IN  WINTER  THEY  TURNED  WHITE. 


Page  178 


The  Inquisitive  Weasels          179 

fight  for  them.  And  such  workers  as  they 
were !  It  made  no  difference  to  them 
whether  it  was  day  or  night,  they  would 
burrow  or  hunt  just  the  same.  When  they 
were  tired  they  slept,  and  when  they 
awakened  they  began  at  once  to  do 
something. 

Several  families  lived  in  the  high  bank 
by  the  edge  of  the  forest,  just  where  the 
ground  slopes  down  to  the  marsh.  They 
had  lived  there  year  after  year,  and  had 
kept  on  adding  to  their  burrows.  There 
was  only  one  doorway  to  each  burrow  and 
that  was  usually  hidden  by  some  leaves  or 
a  stone.  They  were  hardly  as  large  as 
Chipmunk's  holes  and  easily  hidden.  "  It 
is  a  good  thing  to  have  a  fine,  large  home," 
said  the  Weasels,  "  but  we  build  for  com- 
fort, not  for  show." 

All  the  Weasel  burrows  began  alike, 
with  a  straight,  narrow  hall.  Then  more 
halls  branched  off  from  this,  and  every  little 
way  there  would  be  a  room  in  which  to 


180    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

turn  around  or  rest.  In  some  of  these 
they  stored  food  ;  in  others  they  had  noth- 
ing but  bones  and  things  which  were  left 
from  their  meals.  Each  burrow  had  one 
fine,  large  room,  bigger  than  an  Ovenbird's 
nest,  with  a  soft  bed  of  leaves  and  fur. 
Some  of  the  rooms  were  so  near  the  top 
of  the  ground  that  a  Weasel  could  dig  his 
way  up  in  a  few  minutes  if  he  needed 
another  door.  They  were  the  loveliest 
sort  of  places  for  playing  hide-and-seek, 
and  that  is  a  favorite  Weasel  game,  only 
every  Weasel  wants  to  seek  instead  of 
hiding.  There  was  never  a  bit  of  loose 
earth  around  these  homes,  and  that  is  the 
one  secret  which  Weasels  will  not  tell  out 
of  the  family — they  never  tell  what  they 
do  with  the  earth  they  dig  out.  It  just 
disappears. 

Weasels  like  to  hunt  in  parties.  They 
say  there  is  no  fun  in  doing  anything  un- 
less you  have  somebody  with  whom  to 
talk  it  over.  One  night  four  of  them. 


The  Inquisitive  Weasels          181 

went  out  together  as  soon  as  it  was 
dark.  They  were  young  fellows  and  had 
planned  to  go  to  the  farmer's  Hen-house 
for  the  first  time.  They  started  to  go 
there,  but  of  course  they  wanted  to  see 
everything  by  the  way.  They  would  run 
straight  ahead  for  a  little  while,  then 
turn  off  to  one  side,  as  Ants  do,  poking 
into  a  Chipmunk's  hole  or  climbing  a  tree 
to  find  a  bird's  nest,  eating  whatever 
food  they  found,  and  talking  softly  about 
everything. 

"  It  is  disgraceful  the  way  that  Chip- 
munk keeps  house,"  said  one  of  them,  as 
he  came  back  from  going  through  a  bur- 
row under  a  tree.  "  Half-eaten  food 
dropped  right  on  the  floor  of  the  burrow 
in  the  most  careless  way.  It  was  only  a 
nut.  If  it  had  been  anything  I  cared  for, 
I  would  have  eaten  it  myself." 

Then  they  gossiped  about  Chipmunks, 
and  said  that,  although  they  always  looked 
trim  and  neat,  there  was  no  telling  what 


1 82    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

sort  of  housekeepers  they  were  ;  and  that 
it  really  seemed  as  though  they  would  do 
better  to  stay  at  home  more  and  run 
about  the  forest  less.  The  Chipmunk 
heard  all  this  from  the  tree  where  he  had 
hidden  himself,  and  would  have  liked  to 
speak  right  out  and  tell  them  what  he 
thought  of  callers  who  entered  one's 
home  without  knocking  and  sneaked 
around  to  see  how  things  were  kept.  He 
knew  better  than  to  do  so,  however.  He 
knew  that  when  four  hungry  Weasels 
were  out  hunting  their  supper,  it  was  an 
excellent  time  to  keep  still.  He  was 
right.  And  there  are  many  times  when 
it  is  better  for  angry  people  to  keep  still, 
even  if  they  are  not  afraid  of  being 
eaten. 

After  they  had  gone  he  came  down. 
"  It  was  lucky  for  me,"  he  said,  "  that  I 
awakened  hungry  and  ate  a  lunch.  If  I 
had  n  't  been  awake  to  run  away  there  's 
no  telling  where  I  would  be  now.  There 


The  Inquisitive  Weasels          183 

are  some  things  worse  than  having  people 
think  you  a  poor  housekeeper." 

Just  as  the  Chipmunk  was  finishing  his 
lunch,  one  of  the  Weasels  whispered  to 
the  others  to  stop.  "  There  is  somebody 
coming,"  said  he.  "  Let  's  wait  and  see 
what  he  is  doing." 

It  was  the  Black-tailed  Skunk,  who 
came  along  slowly,  sniffing  here  and  there, 
and  once  in  a  while  stopping  to  eat  a  few 
mouthfuls. 

44  Does  n  't  it  seem  to  you  that  he  acts 
very  queerly  ? "  said  one  of  the  Weasels 
to  the  rest. 

"  Very,"  replied  another.  "  And  he 
does  n't  look  quite  as  usual.  I  don't 
know  that  I  ever  saw  him  carry  his  tail  in 
just  that  way." 

"  I  'd  like  to  know  where  he  is  going," 
said  another.  "  I  guess  he  does  n  't  think 
anybody  will  see  him." 

"  Let  's  follow  him,"  said  the  fourth 
Weasel,  who  had  not  spoken  before. 


184    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

While  he  was  near  them  they  hid  be- 
hind a  hemlock  log  out  of  which  many 
tiny  hemlocks  were  growing.  Once  in  a 
while  they  peeped  between  the  soft 
fringy  leaves  of  these  to  see  what  he  was 
doing.  They  were  much  excited.  "  He 
is  putting  his  nose  down  to  the  ground," 
one  would  say.  "  It  must  be  that  he  has 
found  something." 

Then  another  would  poke  his  little 
head  up  through  the  hemlocks  and  look 
at  the  Skunk.  "He  could  n  't  have  found 
anything  after  all,"  he  would  say.  "  I 
can  't  hear  him  eating." 

"  It  is  very  strange,"  the  rest  would 
murmur. 

Now  it  just  happened  that  the  Black- 
tailed  Skunk  had  scented  the  Weasels 
and  knew  that  they  were  near.  He  had 
also  heard  the  rustling  behind  the  hem- 
lock log.  He  knew  what  gossips  Weas- 
els are,  and  he  guessed  that  they  were 
watching  him,  so  he  decided  to  give  them 


The  Inquisitive  Weasels  185 

something  to  think  about.  He  knew  that 
they  would  often  fight  people  larger  than 
themselves,  but  he  was  not  afraid  of  any- 
body. He  did  not  care  to  fight  them 
either,  for  if  he  got  near  enough  to  really 
enjoy  it  they  would  be  likely  to  bite  him 
badly,  and  when  a  Weasel  has  set  his 
teeth  into  anybody  it  is  not  easy  to  make 
him  let  go.  "  I  rather  think,"  said  he  to 
himself,  "  that  there  will  be  four  very  tired 
young  Weasels  sleeping  in  their  burrows 
to-morrow." 

"  He  's  walking  away,"  whispered  one 
of  the  Weasels.  "  Where  do  you  suppose 
he  is  going  ?  " 

"  We  '11  have  to  find  out,"  said  the 
others,  as  they  crept  quietly  out  of  their 
hiding-places. 

The  Skunk  went  exactly  where  he 
wanted  to.  Whenever  he  found  food  he 
ate  it.  The  Weasels  who  followed  after 
found  nothing  left  for  them.  They  be- 
came very  hungry,  but  if  one  of  them 


1 86    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

began  to  think  of  going  off  for  a  lunch,  the 
Skunk  was  certain  to  do  something  queer. 
Sometimes  he  would  lie  down  and  laugh. 
Then  the  Weasels  would  peep  at  him  from 
a  hiding-place  and  whisper  together. 

"  What  do  you  suppose  makes  him 
laugh  ?  "  they  would  ask.  "  It  must  be 
that  he  is  thinking  of  something  wonder- 
ful which  he  is  going  to  do.  We  must 
not  lose  sight  of  him." 

Once  he  met  the  Spotted  Skunk,  his 
brother,  and  they  whispered  together  for 
a  few  minutes.  Then  the  Spotted  Skunk 
laughed,  and  as  he  passed  on,  the  Black- 
tailed  Skunk  called  back  to  him  :  "  Be 
sure  not  to  tell  any  one.  I  do  not  want  it 
known  what  I  am  doing." 

Then  the  four  young  Weasels  nudged 
each  other  and  said,  "  There  !  We  knew 
it  all  the  time  ! " 

After  that,  nobody  spoke  about  being 
hungry.  All  they  cared  for  was  the  fol- 
lowing of  the  Black-tailed  Skunk.  Once, 


The  Inquisitive  Weasels  187 

when  they  were  in  the  marsh,  they  were 
so  afraid  of  being  seen  that  they  slipped 
into  the  ditch  and  swam  for  a  way.  They 
were  good  swimmers  and  did  n't  much 
mind,  but  it  just  shows  how  they  followed 
the  Skunk.  Once  he  led  them  over  to 
the  farm  and  they  remembered  their  plan 
of  going  to  the  Hen-house.  They  were 
very,  very  hungry,  and  each  looked  at 
the  others  to  see  what  they  thought  about 
letting  the  Skunk  go  and  stopping  for 
a  hearty  supper.  Still,  nobody  spoke  of 
doing  so.  One  Weasel  whispered  :  "  Now 
we  shall  surely  see  what  he  is  about.  He 
ought  to  know  that  he  cannot  do  wrong 
or  mischievous  things  without  being  found 
out.  And  since  we  discover  it  ourselves, 
we  shall  certainly  feel  free  to  speak  of 
it- 
Collie,  the  watch-dog,  was  sleeping 
lightly,  and  came  rushing  around  the 
corner  of  the  house  to  see  what  strangers 
were  there,  but  when  he  saw  who  they 


1 88    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

were,  he  dropped  his  tail  and  walked 
away.  He  was  old  enough  to  know  many 
things,  and  he  knew  too  much  to  fight 
either  a  Skunk  or  a  Weasel.  Every  one 
lets  Skunks  alone,  and  it  is  well  to  let 
Weasels  alone  also,  for  although  they  are 
so  small  they  bite  badly. 

Now  the  Black-tailed  Skunk  turned  to 
the  forest  and  walked  toward  his  hole. 
The  Screech  -  Owl  passed  them  flying 
homeward,  and  several  times  Bats  darted 
over  their  heads.  When  they  went  by 
the  Bats'  cave  they  could  tell  by  the 
sound  that  ten  or  twelve  were  inside 
hanging  themselves  up  for  the  day.  A 
dim  light  showed  in  the  eastern  sky,  and 
the  day  birds  were  stirring  and  beginning 
to  preen  their  feathers. 

"  What  do  you  think  it  means  ?  "  whis- 
pered the  Weasels.  "He  seems  to  be 
going  home.  Do  you  suppose  he  has 
changed  his  mind  ?  " 

When  he  reached  his  hole  the  Black- 


The  Inquisitive  Weasels          189 

tailed  Skunk  stopped  and  looked  around. 
The  Weasels  hid  themselves  under  some 
fallen  leaves.  "  I  bid  you  good-morning," 
said  the  Skunk,  looking  toward  the  place 
where  they  were.  "  I  hope  you  are  not 
too  tired.  This  walk  has  been  very  easy 
for  me,  but  I  fear  it  was  rather  long  for 
Weasels.  Besides,  I  have  found  plenty 
to  eat  and  have  chosen  smooth  paths  for 
myself.  Good-morning  !  I  have  enjoyed 
your  company  ! " 

When  even  the  tip  of  his  tail  was  hid- 
den in  the  hole,  the  Weasels  crawled  from 
under  the  leaves  and  looked  at  each  other. 

"  We  believe  he  knew  all  the  time  that 
we  were  following  him,"  they  said.  "  He 
acted  queerly  just  to  fool  us.  The 
wretch  !  " 

Yet  after  all,  you  see,  he  had  done  only 
what  he  did  every  night,  and  it  was  be- 
cause they  were  watching  and  talking 
about  him  that  they  thought  him  going 
on  some  strange  errand. 


THE  THRIFTY  DEER  MOUSE 

A  A  J  HEN  the  days  grew  short  and  chilly, 
*  and  bleak  winds  blew  out  of  the 

great  blue-gray  cloud  banks  in  the  west, 
many  of  the  forest  people  went  to  sleep 
for  the  winter.  And  not  only  they,  but 
over  in  the  meadow  the  Tree  Frog  and 
the  Garter  Snake  had  already  crawled 
out  of  sight  and  were  dreaming  sweetly. 
The  song  birds  had  long  before  this 
started  south,  and  the  banks  of  the  pond 
and  its  bottom  of  comfortable  soft  mud 
held  many  sleepers.  Under  the  water 
the  Frogs  had  snuggled  down  in  groups 
out  of  sight.  Some  of  the  Turtles  were 
there  also,  and  some  were  in  the  bank. 

The  Ground   Hogs  had  grown  stupid 
and  dozy  before  the  last  leaves  fluttered 
190 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse         191 

to  the  ground,  and  had  been  the  first  of 
the  fur-bearers  to  go  to  bed  for  the 
winter.  There  were  so  many  interesting 
things  to  see  and  do  in  the  late  fall  days 
that  they  tried  exceedingly  hard  to  keep 
awake. 

A  Weasel  was  telling  a  Ground  Hog 
something  one  day — and  it  was  a  very 
interesting  piece  of  gossip,  only  it  was 
rather  unkind,  and  so  might  better  not 
be  told  here — when  he  saw  the  Ground 
Hog  winking  very  slow  and  sleepy  winks 
and  letting  his  head  droop  lower  and 
lower.  Once  he  asked  him  if  he  under- 
stood. The  Ground  Hog  jumped  and 
opened  his  eyes  very  wide  indeed,  and 
said  :  "  Oh,  yes,  yes  !  Perfectly  !  Oh-ah- 
ah-ah-ah-ah."  His  yawn  did  n't  look  so 
big  as  it  sounds,  because  his  mouth  was 
so  small. 

He  tried  to  act  politely  interested,  but 
just  as  the  Weasel  reached  the  most 
exciting  part  of  his  story,  the  Ground 


1 92    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Hog  rolled  over  sound  asleep.  The  next 
day  he  said  "  good-by "  to  his  friends, 
wished  them  a  happy  winter,  and  said  he 
might  see  some  of  them  before  spring, 
as  he  should  come  out  once  to  make  the 
weather.  "  I  only  hope  I  shall  awaken 
in  time,"  he  said,  "  but  I  am  fat  enough 
to  sleep  until  the  violets  are  up." 

He  had  to  be  fat,  you  know,  to  last 
him  through  the  cold  weather  without 
eating.  He  was  so  stout  that  he  could 
hardly  waddle,  his  big,  loose-skinned 
body  dragged  when  he  walked,  and 
was  even  shakier  than  ever.  He  really 
could  n't  hurry  by  jumping  and  he  was 
so  short  of  breath  that  he  could  barely 
whistle  when  he  went  into  his  hole. 

The  Raccoons  went  after  the  Ground 
Hog  and  the  Skunks  were  later  still. 
They  never  slept  so  very  long,  and  said 
they  did  n't  really  need  to  at  all,  and 
would  n't  except  that  they  had  nothing 
to  do  and  it  made  housekeeping  easier. 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse         193 

It  saved  so  much  not  to  have  to  go  out 
to  their  meals  in  the  coldest  weather. 

When  the  large  people  were  safely  out 
of  the  way,  the  smaller  ones  had  their 
best  times.  The  Muskrats  were  awake, 
but  they  had  their  big  houses  to  eat  and 
were  not  likely  to  trouble  Mice  and 
Squirrels.  There  was  not  much  to  fear 
except  Owls  and  Weasels.  The  Ground 
Hogs  had  once  tried  to  get  the  Great 
Horned  Owl  to  go  south  when  the 
Cranes  did,  and  he  had  laughed  in  their 
faces.  "  To-whoo  !  "  said  he.  "  Not  I  ! 
I  'm  not  afraid  of  cold  weather.  You 
don't  know  how  warm  feathers  are.  I 
never  wear  anything  else.  Furs  are  all 
right,  but  they  are  not  feathers." 

He  and  his  relatives  sat  all  day  in  their 
holes,  and  seldom  flew  out  except  at 
night.  Sometimes,  when  the  day  was 
not  too  bright,  they  made  short  trips  out 
for  luncheon.  It  was  very  unfortunate 
for  any  Mouse  to  be  near  at  those  times. 


194    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

Now  the  snow  had  fallen  and  the  beau- 
tiful still  cold  days  had  come.  The 
Weasels'  fur  had  changed  from  brown  to 
white,  as  it  does  in  cold  countries  in 
winter.  The  Chipmunks  had  taken  their 
last  scamper  until  early  spring,  and  were 
living,  each  alone,  in  their  comfortable 
burrows.  They  were  most  independent 
and  thrifty.  No  one  ever  heard  of  a 
Chipmunk  lacking  food  unless  some  rob- 
ber had  carried  off  his  nuts  and  corn. 
The  Mice  think  that  it  must  be  very 
dull  for  a  Chipmunk  to  stay  by  himself 
all  winter,  since  he  does  not  sleep  steadily. 
The  Chipmunks  do  not  find  it  so.  One 
of  them  said  :  "  Dull  ?  I  never  find  it  dull. 
When  I  am  awake,  I  eat  or  clean  my  fur 
or  think.  If  I  had  any  one  staying  with 
me  he  might  rouse  me  when  I  want  to 
sleep,  or  pick  the  nut  that  I  want  for 
myself,  or  talk  when  I  am  thinking.  No, 
thank  you,  I  will  go  calling  when  I  want 
company." 


THE  MICE  MAKE  WINTER  THEIR  PLAYTIME. 


Page  195 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse         195 

The  Mice  make  winter  their  playtime. 
Then  the  last  summer's  babies  are  all 
grown  up  and  able  to  look  out  for  them- 
selves, and  the  fathers  and  mother's  have 
a  chance  to  rest.  The  Meadow  Mice 
come  together  in  big  parties  and  build 
groups  of  snug  winter  homes  under  the 
snow  of  the  meadow,  with  many  tiny 
covered  walks  leading  from  one  to  an- 
other. Their  food  is  all  around  them — 
grass  roots  and  brown  seeds — and  there 
is  so  much  of  it  that  they  never  quarrel 
to  see  who  shall  have  this  root  and  who 
shall  have  that.  They  sleep  during  the 
daytime  and  awaken  to  eat  and  visit  and 
have  a  good  time  at  night. 

Sometimes  they  are  awakened  in  the 
daytime,  as  they  were  when  the  Grouse 
broke  through  the  snow  near  them.  That 
was  an  accident,  and  the  Grouse  felt  very 
sorry  about  it.  They  had  snuggled  down 
in  a  cozy  family  party  near  by,  and  were' 
just  starting  out  for  a  stroll  one  morning 


196    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

when  the  eldest  son  stumbled  and  fell 
and  crushed  through  the  snow  into  the 
little  settlement  of  Meadow  Mice. 

The  young  Grouse  was  much  ashamed 
of  his  awkwardness.  "  I  am  so  sorry," 
he  said.  "  I  'm  not  used  to  my  snow- 
shoes  yet.  This  is  the  first  winter  I  have 
worn  them." 

"That  is  all  right,"  said  the  Oldest 
Mouse  politely.  "It  must  be  hard  to 
manage  them  at  first.  We  hope  you  will 
have  better  luck  after  this."  Then  they 
bowed  to  each  other  and  the  Grouse 
walked  off  to  join  his  brothers  and  sisters, 
lifting  his  feet  with  their  newly  grown 
feather  snow-shoes  very  high  at  every 
step.  The  Meadow  Mice  went  to  work 
to  make  their  homes  neat  again,  yet  they 
never  looked  really  right  until  that  snow 
had  melted  and  more  had  fallen.  One 
might  think  that  the  Meadow  Mice  and 
the  Grouse  would  care  less  for  each 
other  after  that,  but  it  was  not  so.  It 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse         197 

never  is  so  if  people  who  make  trouble 
are  quick  to  say  that  they  are  sorry,  and 
those  who  were  hurt  will  keep  patient 
and  forgiving. 

It  was  only  the  night  after  this  hap- 
pened that  one  of  the  Deer  Mice  had  a 
great  fright.  His  home  was  in  a  Bee 
tree  in  the  forest.  The  Bees  and  he  had 
always  been  the  best  of  friends,  and  now 
that  they  were  keeping  close  to  their 
honeycomb  all  winter,  the  Deer  Mouse 
had  taken  a  small  room  in  the  same  tree. 
It  helped  to  keep  him  warm  when  he 
slept  close  to  the  Bees,  for  there  was 
always  some  heat  coming  from  their 
bodies.  Once  in  a  while,  too,  he  took 
a  nibble  of  honey,  and  they  did  not  mind. 

The  Deer  Mouse  did  not  keep  much 
of  his  own  winter  food  where  he  lived. 
He  had  a  few  beechnuts  near  by,  and 
when  the  weather  was  very  stormy  in- 
deed he  ate  some  of  these.  There  was 
room  for  many  more  in  the  storeroom 


198    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

(another  hole  in  the  Bee  tree),  but  he 
liked  to  keep  food  in  many  -places.  "  It 
is  wiser,"  said  he.  "  Supposing  I  had 
them  all  here  and  this  tree  should  be 
blown  down,  and  it  should  fall  in  such 
a  way  that  I  could  n't  reach  the  hole. 
What  would  I  do  then  ?  " 

He  was  talking  to  a  Rabbit  when  he 
said  this.  The  Rabbit  never  stored  up 
food  himself,  yet  he  sometimes  told  other 
people  how  he  thought  it  should  be  done. 
He  was  sure  it  would  be  better  to  have 
all  the  nuts  in  one  place  as  the  Chip- 
munks did.  And  now  that  the  Deer 
Mouse  had  given  his  reasons,  he  was  just 
as  sure  as  ever.  "  The  Bee  tree  is  not 
very  likely  to  blow  down  in  that  way," 
said  he.  "  There  is  not  much  danger." 

"  Not  much,  but  some,"  answered  the 
Deer  Mouse.  "  Hollow  trees  fall  more 
quickly  than  solid  ones.  You  may  store 
your  food  where  you  please  and  I  '11  take 
care  of  mine." 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse         199 

The  Deer  Mouse  spoke  very  decidedly, 
although  he  was  perfectly  polite.  His 
beautiful  brown  eyes  looked  squarely  at 
the  Rabbit,  and  you  could  tell  by  the  po- 
sition of  his  slender  long  tail  that  he  was 
much  in  earnest.  The  Rabbit  went  home. 

The  Deer  Mouse  put  away  hundreds 
and  hundreds  of  beechnuts.  These  he 
took  carefully  out  of  their  shells  and  laid 
in  nicely  lined  holes  in  tree-trunks.  He 
used  leaves  for  lining  these  places.  Be- 
sides keeping  food  in  the  trees,  he  hid 
little  piles  of  nuts  under  stones  and  logs, 
and  tucked  seeds  into  chinks  of  fences 
or  tiny  pockets  in  the  ground.  He  had 
worked  in  the  wheatfield  after  the  grain 
was  cut,  picking  up  and  carrying  away  the 
stray  kernels  which  had  fallen  from  the 
sheaves.  He  never  counted  the  places 
where  food  was  stored,  but  he  was  happy 
in  thinking  about  them.  When  he  lay 
down  to  sleep  in  the  morning  he  always 
knew  where  the  next  night's  meals  were 


2OO    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

coming  from.  There  was  not  a  thriftier, 
happier  person  in  the  forest.  He  was  gen- 
tle, good-natured,  and  exceedingly  busi- 
nesslike. He  was  also  very  handsome, 
with  large  ears  and  white  belly  and  feet. 
The  night  after  his  cousins,  the  Meadow 
Mice,  had  been  so  frightened  by  the 
Grouse,  this  Deer  Mouse  started  out  for 
a  good  time.  He  called  on  the  Meadow 
Mice,  ate  a  chestnut  which  he  dug  up  in 
the  edge  of  the  forest,  scampered  up  a 
fence-post  and  tasted  of  his  hidden  wheat 
to  be  sure  that  it  was  keeping  well,  and 
then  went  to  the  tree  where  most  of  his 
beechnuts  were  stored.  He  was  not 
quite  certain  that  he  wanted  to  eat  one, 
but  he  wished  to  be  sure  that  they  were 
all  right  before  he  went  on.  He  had 
been  invited  to  a  party  by  some  other 
Deer  Mice,  and  so,  you  see,  it  would  n't 
do  for  him  to  spoil  his  appetite.  They 
would  be  sure  to  have  refreshments  at 
the  party. 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse         201 

"  I  suppose  they  are  all  right,"  said  he, 
as  he  started  to  run  up  the  tree  ;  "  still  it 
is  just  as  well  to  be  sure." 

"  My  whiskers  !  "  he  exclaimed,  when 
he  reached  the  hole.  "  If  that  is  n't  just 
like  a  Red  Squirrel !  " 

The  opening  into  the  tree  had  been 
barely  large  enough  for  him  to  squeeze 
through,  and  now  he  could  pass  in  without 
crushing  his  fur.  Around  the  edge  of  it 
were  many  marks  of  sharp  teeth.  Some- 
body had  wanted  to  get  in  and  had  not 
found  the  doorway  large  enough.  The 
Deer  Mouse  went  inside  and  sat  on  his 
beechnuts.  Then  he  thought  and  thought 
and  thought.  He  knew  very  well  that  it 
was  a  Red  Squirrel,  for  the  Red  Squirrels 
are  not  so  thrifty  as  most  of  the  nut- 
eaters.  They  make  a  great  fuss  about 
gathering  food  in  the  fall,  and  frisk  and 
chatter  and  scold  if  anybody  else  comes 
where  they  are  busy.  For  all  that,  the 
Chipmunks  and  the  Deer  Mice  work 


2O2    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

much  harder  than  they.  It  is  not  always 
the  person  who  makes  the  greatest  fuss, 
you  know,  who  does  the  most. 

A  Red  Squirrel  is  usually  out  of  food 
long  before  spring  comes,  and  after  that 
he  takes  whatever  he  can  lay  his  paws  on. 
Sometimes  the  Chipmunks  tell  them  that 
they  should  be  ashamed  of  themselves  and 
work  harder.  Then  the  Red  Squirrels  sigh 
and  answer,  "  Oh,  that  is  all  very  well  for 
you  to  say,  still  you  must  remember  that 
we  have  not  such  cheek  pouches  as  you." 

The  Deer  Mouse  thought  of  these 
things.  "  Cheek  pouches  !  "  cried  he.  "  I 
have  no  cheek  pouches,  but  I  lay  up  my 
own  food.  It  is  only  an  excuse  when 
they  say  that.  I  don't  think  much  of 
people  who  make  excuses." 

He  passed  through  the  doorway  several 
times  to  see  just  how  big  it  was.  He 
found  it  was  not  yet  large  enough  for  a 
Red  Squirrel.  Then  he  scampered  over 
the  snow  to  a  friend's  home.  "  I  'm  not 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse         203 

going  to  the  party,"  said  he.  "I  have 
some  work  to  do." 

"Work?"  said  the  friend.  "Work? 
In  winter?"  But  before  he  had  finished 
speaking  his  caller  had  gone. 

All  night  long  the  Deer  Mouse  carried 
beechnuts  from  the  old  hiding-place  to  a 
new  one.  He  wore  quite  a  path  in  the 
snow  between  one  tree  and  the  other. 
His  feet  were  tiny,  but  there  were  four 
of  them,  and  his  long  tail  dragged  after 
him.  It  was  riot  far  that  he  had  to  go. 
The  new  place  was  one  which  he  had 
looked  at  before.  It  was  in  a  maple  tree, 
and  had  a  long  and  very  narrow  opening 
leading  to  the  storeroom.  It  was  having 
to  go  so  far  into  the  tree  that  had  kept 
the  Deer  Mouse  from  using  it  before.  Now 
he  liked  it  all  the  better  for  having  this. 

"  If  that  Red  Squirrel  ever  gnaws  his 
way  in  here,"  he  said,  "  he  won't  have  any 
teeth  left  for  eating." 

When  the  sun  rose,  the  Deer  Mouse 


204    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

went  to  sleep  in  the  maple  tree.  The  Red 
Squirrel  came  and  gnawed  at  the  opening 
into  his  old  storeroom.  If  he  had  gnawed 
all  day  he  would  surely  have  gotten  in. 
As  it  was,  he  had  to  spend  much  time 
hunting  for  food.  He  found  some  frozen 
apples  still  hanging  in  the  orchard,  and 
bit  away  at  them  until  he  reached  the 
seeds  inside.  He  found  one  large  acorn, 
but  it  was  old  and  tasted  musty.  He 
also  squabbled  with  another  Red  Squirrel 
and  chased  him  nearly  to  the  farmyard. 
Then  Collie  heard  them  and  chased  him 
most  of  the  way  back. 

When  night  came  and  he  ran  off  to 
sleep  in  his  hollow  tree,  he  had  made  the 
hole  almost,  but  not  quite,  large  enough. 
He  could  smell  the  beechnuts  inside,  and 
it  made  him  hungry  to  think  how  good 
they  would  taste.  "  I  will  get  up  early 
to-morrow  morning  and  come  here,"  he 
said.  "  I  can  gnaw  my  way  in  before 
breakfast,  and  then  !  " 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse          205 

He  went  off  in  fine  leaps  to  his  home 
and  was  soon  sound  asleep.  In  summer 
he  often  frolicked  around  half  of  the 
night,  but  now  it  was  cold,  and  when  the 
sun  went  down  he  liked  to  get  home 
quickly  and  wrap  up  warmly  in  his  tail. 
The  Red  Squirrel  was  hardly  out  of  sight 
when  the  Deer  Mouse  came  along  his 
path  in  the  snow  and  up  to  his  old  store- 
room. His  dainty  white  feet  shook  a  lit- 
tle as  he  climbed,  and  he  hardly  dared 
look  in  for  fear  of  finding  the  hole  empty. 
You  can  guess  how  happy  he  was  to  find 
everything  safe. 

All  night  long  he  worked,  and  when 
morning  came  it  was  a  very  tired  little 
Deer  Mouse  who  carried  his  last  beech- 
nut over  the  trodden  path  to  its  safe  new 
resting  place.  He  was  tired  but  he  was 
happy. 

There  was  just  one  other  thing  that  he 
wanted  to  do.  He  wanted  to  see  that  Red 
Squirrel  when  he  found  the  beechnuts 


206     Among  the  Night-Time  People 

gone.  He  waited  near  by  for  him  to 
come.  It  was  a  beautiful,  still  winter 
morning  when  the  hoar-frost  clung  to  all 
the  branches,  and  the  shadows  which  fell 
upon  the  snow  looked  fairly  blue,  it  was 
so  cold.  The  Deer  Mouse  crouched 
down  upon  his  dainty  feet  to  keep  them 
warm,  and  wrapped  his  tail  carefully 
around  to  help. 

Along  came  the  Red  Squirrel,  dashing 
finely  and  not  noticing  the  Deer  Mouse 
at  all.  A  few  leaps  brought  him  to  the 
tree,  a  quick  run  took  him  to  the  hole, 
and  then  he  began  to  gnaw.  The  Deer 
Mouse  was  growing  sleepy  and  de- 
cided not  to  wait  longer.  He  ran  along 
near  the  Red  Squirrel.  "  Oh,  good-morn- 
ing ! "  said  he.  "  Beautiful  day !  I  see 
you  are  getting  that  hole  ready  to  use. 
Hope  you  will  like  it.  I  liked  it  very 
well  for  a  while,  but  I  began  to  fear  it 
was  n't  safe." 

"  Wh-what  do  you  mean  ? "  asked  the 


The  Thrifty  Deer  Mouse          207 

Red  Squirrel  sternly.  He  had  seen  the 
Deer  Mouse's  eyes  twinkle  and  he  was 
afraid  of  a  joke. 

"  Oh,"  answered  the  Deer  Mouse  with  a 
careless  whisk  of  his  tail,  "  I  had  some 
beechnuts  there  until  I  moved  them." 

"  You  had  ! "  exclaimed  the  Red  Squir- 
rel. He  did  not  gnaw  any  after  that. 
He  suddenly  became  very  friendly.  "  You 
could  n't  tell  me  where  to  find  food,  I  sup- 
pose," said  he.  "  I  'd  eat  almost  anything." 

The  Deer  Mouse  thought  for  a  min- 
ute. "  I  believe,"  said  he,  "  that  you  will 
find  plenty  in  the  farmer's  barn,  but  you 
must  look  out  for  the  Dog." 

"  Thank  you,"  said  the  Red  Squirrel. 
"  I  will  go." 

"  There  ! "  said  the  Deer  Mouse  after 
he  had  whisked  out  of  sight.  "He  has 
gone  to  steal  from  the  farmer.  Still, 
men  have  so  very  much  that  they  ought 
to  share  with  Squirrels." 

And  that,  you  know,  is  true. 


THE  HUMMING-BIRD  AND  THE 
HAWK-MOTH 

""PHE  Hawk-Moths  are  acquainted  with 
•*•  nearly  everybody  and  are  great  so- 
ciety people.  They  are  invited  to  com- 
panies given  by  the  daylight  set,  and  also 
to  parties  given  at  night  by  those  who 
sleep  during  the  day.  This  is  not  be- 
cause the  Hawk-Moths  are  always  awake. 
Oh  dear,  no !  There  is  nobody  in  pond, 
forest,  meadow,  marsh,  or  even  in  houses, 
who  can  be  well  and  strong  and  happy 
without  plenty  of  sleep. 

The  Hawk-Moths  were  awake  more  or 
less  during  the  day,  but  it  was  not  until 
the  sun  was  low  in  the  western  sky  that 
they  were  busiest.  When  every  tree  had 
a  shadow  two  or  three  times  as  long  as 
208 


Humming-Bird  and  Hawk-Moth     209 

the  tree  itself,  then  one  heard  the  whir-r-r 
of  wings  and  the  Hawk-Moths  darted 
past.  They  staid  up  long  after  the  day- 
light people  went  to  bed.  The  Catbird, 
who  sang  from  the  tip  of  the  topmost 
maple  tree  branch  long  after  most  of 
his  bird  friends  were  asleep,  said  that 
when  he  tucked  his  head  under  his  wing 
the  Hawk-Moths  were  still  flying.  In 
that  way,  of  course,  they  became  ac- 
quainted with  the  people  of  the  night- 
time. 

There  was  one  fine  large  Hawk-Moth 
who  used  to  be  a  Tomato  Worm  when 
he  was  young,  although  he  really  fed  as 
much  upon  potato  vines  as  upon  tomato 
plants.  He  was  handsome  from  the  tip 
of  his  long,  slender  sucking-tongue  to  the 
tip  of  his  trim,  gray  body.  His  wings 
were  pointed  and  light  gray  in  color,  with 
four  blackish  lines  across  the  hind  ones. 
His  body  was  also  gray,  and  over  it  and 
his  wings  were  many  dainty  markings  of 


2io    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

black  or  very  dark  gray.  On  the  back 
part  of  it  he  had  ten  square  yellow  spots 
edged  with  black.  There  were  also  twenty 
tiny  white  spots  there,  but  he  did  not 
care  so  much  for  them.  He  always  felt 
badly  to  think  that  his  yellow  spots 
showed  so  little.  That  could  n't  be  helped, 
of  course,  and  he  should  have  been  thank- 
ful to  have  them  at  all. 

Another  thing  which  troubled  him  was 
the  fact  tha't  he  could  n't  see  his  own  yellow 
spots.  He  would  have  given  a  great  deal 
to  do  so.  He  could  see  the  yellow  spots 
of  other  Hawk-Moths  who  had  been  To- 
mato Worms  when  he  was,  but  that  was 
not  like  seeing  his  own.  He  had  tried 
and  tried,  and  it  always  ended  in  the 
same  way — his  eyes  were  tired  and  his 
back  ached.  His  body  was  so  much 
stouter  and  stiffer  than  that  of  his  butter- 
fly cousins  that  he  could  not  bend  it 
easily. 

When   he  got   to   thinking   about  his 


Humming-Bird  and  Hawk-Moth    211 

yellow  spots  he  often  flew  away  to  the 
farmer's  potato-fields,  where  the  young 
Tomato  Worms  were  feeding.  He 
would  fly  around  them  and  cry  out : 
"  Look  at  my  yellow  spots.  Are  they 
not  fine  ? "  Then  he  would  dart  away 
to  the  vegetable-garden  and  balance  him- 
self in  the  air  over  the  tomato  plants. 
The  humming  of  his  wings  would  make 
the  Tomato  Worms  there  look  up,  and 
he  would  say :  "If  you  are  good  little 
Worms  and  eat  a  great  deal,  you  may 
some  day  become  fine  Moths  like  me  and 
have  ten  yellow  spots  apiece." 

Sometimes  he  even  went  down  to  the 
corner  where  the  farmer  had  tobacco 
plants  growing,  and  showed  his  yellow 
spots  to  the  Tomato  Worms  there.  He 
never  went  anywhere  else,  for  these 
worms  do  not  care  for  other  things  to 
eat.  Everywhere  that  he  went  the  To- 
mato Worms  exclaimed  :  "  Oh  !  Oh  ! 
What  beautiful  yellow  spots !  What 


212    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

wonderful  yellow  spots  !  "  When  he  flew 
away  they  would  not  eat  for  a  while,  but 
rested  on  their  fat  pro-legs,  raised  the 
front  part  of  their  bodies  in  the  air,  folded 
their  six  little  real  legs  under  their  chins, 
and  thought  and  thought  and  thought. 
They  always  sat  in  that  position  when  they 
were  thinking,  and  they  had  a  great  many 
cousins  who  did  the  same  thing.  It  was 
a  habit  which  ran  in  the  family. 

When  other  people  saw  them  sitting  in 
this  way,  with  their  real  legs  crossed  un- 
der their  chins,  they  always  cried  :  "  Look 
at  the  Sphinxes!"  although  not  one  of 
them  knew  what  a  Sphinx  really  was. 
And  that  was  just  one  of  their  habits. 
This  was  why  the  Hawk-Moths  were 
sometimes  called  Sphinx-Moths. 

It  was  not  kind  in  the  Hawk-Moth  to 
come  and  make  the  Tomato  Worms  dis- 
contented. If  he  had  stayed  away,  they 
would  have  thought  it  the  loveliest  thing 
in  the  world  to  be  fat  green  Tomato 


Humming-Bird  and  Hawk-Moth     213 

Worms  with  two  sorts  of  legs  and  each 
with  a  horn  standing  up  on  the  hind  end 
of  his  body.  That  is  not  the  usual  place 
for  horns,  still  it  does  very  well,  and  these 
horns  are  worn  only  for  looks.  They  are 
never  used  for  poking  or  stinging. 

Before  the  Hawk-Moth  came  to  visit 
them,  the  Tomato  Worms  had  thought 
it  would  be  quiet,  and  restful,  and  pleas- 
ant to  lie  all  winter  in  their  shining  brown 
pupa-cases  in  the  ground,  waiting  for  the 
spring  to  finish  turning  them  into  Moths. 
Now  they  were  so  impatient  to  get  their 
yellow  spots  that  they  could  hardly  bear 
the  idea  of  waiting.  They  did  not  even  care 
about  the  long,  slender  tongue-case  which 
every  Tomato-Worm  has  on  his  pupa-case, 
and  which  looks  like  a  handle  to  it. 

One  day  the  Tomato  Worms  told  the 
Ruby-throated  Humming-Bird  about  all 
this.  The  Humming-Bird  was  a  very 
sensible  fellow,  and  would  no  doubt  have 
been  a  hard-working  husband  and  father 


214    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

if  his  wife  had  not  been  so  independent. 
He  had  been  a  most  devoted  lover,  and 
helped  build  a  charming  nest  of  fern-wool 
and  plant-down,  and  cover  it  with  beauti- 
ful gray-green  lichens.  When  done  it 
was  about  as  large  as  half  of  a  hen's  egg, 
and  a  morning-glory  blossom  would  have 
more  than  covered  it.  The  lichens  were 
just  the  color  of  the  branch  on  which  it 
rested,  and  one  could  hardly  see  where  it 
was.  That  is  the  nicest  thing  to  be  said 
about  a  nest.  If  a  bird  ever  asks  you 
what  you  think  of  his  nest,  and  you  wish 
to  say  something  particularly  agreeable, 
you  must  stare  at  the  tree  and  ask  : 
"  Where  is  it  ? "  Then,  when  he  has 
shown  it  to  you,  you  may  speak  of  the 
soft  lining,  or  the  fine  weaving,  or  the 
stout  way  in  which  it  is  fastened  to 
the  branches. 

After  this  nest  was  finished  and  the 
two  tiny  white  eggs  laid  in  it,  Mrs.  Hum- 
ming-Bird  cared  for  nothing  else.  She 


Humming-Bird  and  Hawk-Moth     215 

would  not  go  honey-hunting  with  her 
husband,  or  play  in  the  air  with  him 
as  she  used  to  do.  He  tried  to  coax  her 
by  darting  down  toward  her  as  she  sat 
covering  her  eggs,  and  by  squeaking  the 
sweetest  things  he  could  think  of  into 
her  ear,  but  she  acted  as  though  she 
cared  more  for  the  eggs  than  for  him, 
and  did  not  even  squeak  sweet  things 
back.  So,  of  course,  he  went  away,  and 
let  her  hatch  and  bring  up  her  children 
as  she  chose.  It  was  certainly  her  fault 
that  he  left  her.  She  might  not  have 
been  able  to  leave  the  eggs,  but  she  could 
have  squeaked. 

Now  that  the  Ruby-throated  Humming- 
Bird  had  no  home  cares,  he  made  many 
calls  on  his  friends.  They  were  very 
short  calls,  for  he  would  seldom  sit  down, 
yet  he  heard  and  told  much  news  while 
he  balanced  himself  in  the  air  with  his 
tiny  feet  curled  up  and  his  wings  moving 
so  fast  that  one  could  not  see  them. 


216    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

When  the  Tomato  Worms  told  him 
how  they  felt  about  the  Hawk-Moth's 
yellow  spots,  he  became  very  indignant. 
"  Those  poor  young  worms  ! "  he  said 
to  himself.  "  It  is  a  shame,  and  some- 
thing must  be  done  about  it." 

The  more  he  thought,  the  angrier  he 
became,  and  his  feathers  fairly  stood  on 
end.  He  hardly  knew  what  he  was 
doing,  and  ran  his  long,  slender  bill  into 
the  same  flowers  several  times,  although 
he  had  taken  all  the  honey  from  them  at 
first. 

That  night,  when  the  sun  had  set  and 
the  silvery  moon  was  peeping  above  a 
violet-colored  cloud  in  the  eastern  sky, 
the  Ruby-throated  Humming-Bird  sat  on 
the  tip  of  a  spruce-tree  branch  and  waited 
for  the  Hawk-Moth. 

"  I  hope  nobody  else  will  hear  me  talk- 
ing," said  he.  "  It  would  sound  so  silly 
if  I  were  overheard."  He  sat  very  still, 
his  tiny  feet  clutching  the  branch  tightly. 


Humming-Bird  and  Hawk-Moth     217 

It  was  late  twilight  now  and  really  time 
that  he  should  go  to  sleep,  but  he  had 
decided  that  if  he  could  possibly  keep 
awake  he  would  teach  the  Hawk-Moth 
a  lesson. 

"  I  wish  he  would  hurry,"  said  he.  "  I 
can  hardly  keep  my  eyes  open."  He  did 
not  yawn  because  he  had  not  the  right 
kind  of  mouth  for  it.  You  know  a  yawn 
ought  to  be  nearly  round.  His  beak 
would  have  made  one  a  great,  great  many 
times  higher  than  it  was  wide,  and  that 
would  have  been  exceedingly  unbecoming 
to  him. 

Yellow  evening  primroses  grew  near 
the  spruce-tree,  and  the  tall  stalks  were 
opening  their  flowers  for  the  night. 
Above  the  seed-pods  and  below  the  buds 
on  each  stalk  two,  three,  or  four  blos- 
soms were  slowly  unfolding.  The  Ruby- 
throated  Humming-Bird  did  not  often 
stay  up  long  enough  to  see  this,  and  he 
watched  the  four  smooth  yellow  petals 


218    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

of  one  untwist  themselves  until  they 
were  free  to  spring  wide  open.  He  had 
watched  five  blossoms  when  he  heard  the 
Hawk-Moth  coming.  Then  he  darted 
toward  the  primroses  and  balanced  him- 
self daintily  before  one  while  he  sucked 
honey  from  it. 

Whir-r-r-r !  The  Hawk-Moth  was 
there.  "  Good  evening,"  said  he.  "  Rather 
late  for  you,  is  n't  it  ?  " 

"  It  is  a  little,"  answered  the  Hum- 
ming-Bird.  "  Growing  a  bit  chilly,  too, 
is  n't  it  ?  I  should  think  you  'd  be  cold 
without  feathers.  Mine  are  such  a  com- 
fort. Feel  as  good  as  they  look,  and  that 
is  saying  a  great  deal." 

The  Hawk-Moth  balanced  himself  be- 
fore another  primrose  and  seemed  to  care 
more  about  sucking  honey  up  his  long 
tongue-tube  than  he  did  about  talking. 

"  I  think  it  is  a  great  thing  to  have  a 
touch  of  bright  color,  too,"  said  the  Hum- 
ming-Bird.  "  The  beautiful  red  spot  on 


THE  HUMMINQ-BIRD  AND  THE  HAWK-MOTH.  Page  218 


Humming-Bird  and  Hawk-Moth     219 

my  throat  looks  particularly  warm  and 
becoming  when  the  weather  is  cool.  You 
ought  to  have  something  of  the  sort." 

"I  have  yellow  spots  —  ten  of  them," 
answered  the  Hawk-Moth  sulkily. 

"You  have?"  exclaimed  the  Hum- 
ming-Bird in  the  most  surprised  way. 
"  Oh  yes  !  I  think  I  do  remember  some- 
thing about  them.  It  is  a  pity  they  don't 
show  more.  Mrs.  Humming-Bird  never 
wears  bright  colors.  She  says  it  would 
not  do.  People  would  see  her  on  her 
nest  if  she  did.  Excepting  the  red  spot, 
she  is  dressed  like  me  —  white  breast, 
green  back  and  head,  and  black  wings 
and  tail.  Green  is  another  good  color. 
You  should  wear  some  green." 

The  Hawk-Moth  murmured  that  he 
did  n't  see  any  particular  use  in  wearing 
green. 

"  Oh,"  said  the  Humming-Bird,  "  it 
is  just  the  thing  to  wear  —  neat,  never 
looks  dusty  "  (here  the  Hawk-Moth  drew 


220    Among  the  Night-Time  People 

back,  for  his  own  wings,  you  know,  were 
almost  dust  color),  "  and  matches  the 
leaves  perfectly." 

The  Hawk-Moth  said  something  about 
having  to  go  and  thinking  that  the  prim- 
rose honey  was  not  so  good  as  usual. 

"  I  thought  it  excellent,"  said  the 
Humming-Bird.  "  Perhaps  you  do  not 
get  it  so  easily  as  I.  Ah  yes,  you  use  a 
tongue-tube.  What  different  ways  differ- 
ent people  do  have.  Now  I  like  honey, 
but  I  could  not  live  many  days  on  that 
alone.  What  I  care  most  for  is  the  tiny 
insects  that  I  find  eating  it.  And  you 
cannot  eat  meat.  What  a  pity  !  I  must 
say  that  you  seem  to  make  the  best  of  it, 
though,  and  do  fairly  well.  Oh,  must 
you  go  ?  Well,  good  night." 

The  Hawk -Moth  flew  away  feeling 
very  much  disgusted.  He  had  always 
thought  himself  the  most  beautiful  per- 
son in  the  neighborhood.  He  rather 
thought  so  still.  Yet  it  troubled  him  to 


Humming-Bird  and  Hawk-Moth    221 

know  that  others  did  not  think  so,  and 
he  began  to  remember  how  many  times 
he  had  heard  people  admire  the  Ruby- 
throated  Humming-Bird.  He  never  liked 
him  after  that.  But  neither  did  he  brag. 
The  young  Tomato  Worms  soon  for- 
got what  the  Hawk-Moth  had  said  to 
them,  and  became  happy  and  contented 
once  more.  The  Ruby-throated  Hum- 
ming-Bird never  cared  to  talk  about  it, 
yet  he  was  once  heard  to  say  that  he 
would  rather  offend  the  Hawk-Moth  and 
even  make  him  a  little  unhappy  than  to 
have  him  bothering  the  poor  little  To- 
mato Worms  all  the  time. 


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